House returns as Democrats clash over vote on Biden's $3.5 trillion package

The House makes an early return from its August recess Monday as Democratic leaders seek to string together the votes to advance President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion economic package, a centerpiece of his agenda.

But progressives and moderates are clashing over strategy, and the party doesn't have agreement on how to move forward yet.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to move the bill in tandem with the Senate-passed infrastructure legislation is threatened by a rebellion by moderate Democrats, who have insisted that the $550 billion infrastructure bill get a speedy vote and be signed into law before they consider the larger piece.

Pelosi can lose only three Democratic votes before the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill collapses. Nine moderates led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., have insisted that the infrastructure bill must be voted on first. They they dug in on Sunday night.

In a Washington Post op-ed, they wrote that they are "firmly opposed to holding the president’s infrastructure legislation hostage to reconciliation, risking its passage and the bipartisan support behind it."

On Monday, a coalition of progressive groups announced a six-figure ad buy targeting the centrists. "Tell Representative Gottheimer: Stop obstructing President Biden," a narrator says.

Over the weekend, Pelosi, D-Calif., sought to placate those moderates by setting an Oct. 1 target to pass both bills.

"Any delay to passing the budget resolution threatens the timetable for delivering the historic progress and the transformative vision that Democrats share," Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues late Saturday.