Pelosi vows to pass $1T infrastructure bill this week, move ahead on larger measure

HOPE YEN

WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Joe Biden’s broad domestic agenda at risk of collapse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday vowed that Democrats will pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill this week and push ahead on the bigger $3.5 trillion social safety net and climate change bill while acknowledging the total amount will drop.

Biden spoke with lawmakers over the weekend on the path forward, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the private conversations. Extensive work was being done behind the scenes to shore up support.

When asked Sunday if Pelosi had the votes to pass the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, Biden told reporters at the White House, “It’s going to take the better part of this week.”

Pelosi had originally pledged to House moderates a vote on the infrastructure legislation by Monday, but she said Sunday in a letter to colleagues that vote will now be Thursday. With Democratic divisions, the extra time allowed space for negotiations on the broader bill, so both bills could advance. The $1 trillion infrastructure plan passed the Senate last month.

“Let me just say that we’re going to pass the bill this week,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said earlier Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” She added: “I’m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn’t have the votes. You cannot choose the date. You have to go when you have the votes in a reasonable time, and we will.”

Still, in a delicate balancing act aimed at achieving the near Democratic unanimity needed to push the sprawling package through, Pelosi made clear that Biden’s proposed $3.5 trillion for social spending and climate initiatives will need to be trimmed.

Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have said they won’t support a bill of that size. Manchin has previously proposed spending of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, an amount that progressives have called unacceptable for a bill they originally envisioned at $6 trillion.

Asked on ABC if she agrees the final number on the so-called reconciliation bill will be “somewhat smaller” than $3.5 trillion, Pelosi responded: “That seems self-evident.”

“We’ll see how the number comes down and what we need,” she added. “Again, the Senate and the House, those who are not in full agreement with the president, right, let’s see what our values — let’s not talk about numbers and dollars. Let’s talk about values.”

“I think even those who want a smaller number, support the vision of the president, and this is really transformative.”

Her comments reflected the enormous stakes for the coming week, one that could define the Biden presidency and shape the political contours of next year’s midterm elections.

Along with personal phone calls from the president, several Cabinet officials, senior staff and others were reaching out to lawmakers over the weekend, the White House official said.

Democrats have few votes to spare in the House and no votes to spare in the 50-50 Senate if there is no Republican support to enact Biden’s massive “Build Back Better” agenda. Republicans are lockstep against the larger measure.

Biden, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have led a behind-the-scenes hunt for compromises to resolve internal divisions and, they hope, allow approval of the mammoth bill soon.

The House Budget Committee on Saturday advanced a $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill strengthening social safety net and climate programs, though one Democrat voted “no,” illustrating the challenges party leaders face. The bill, which is certain to be revised before House voting, would be paid for with taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who led a group of House moderates in pushing a quick vote by Monday on the infrastructure bill, said Sunday he wouldn’t be bothered by a slight delay. He was optimistic both pieces of legislation could be resolved this week.

“If the vote — the way these things work, if you start debating it and it rolls over to Tuesday, ... I think we’re all reasonable people,” Gottheimer said. “There’s too much on the line here for our country.”

In setting Thursday’s vote, Pelosi noted it’s also the deadline for related transportation programs, many of which are in the infrastructure bill.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said members of her group won’t be willing to support the infrastructure plan until there is “ironclad” agreement in the House and Senate on the reconciliation bill. She didn’t rule out additional cuts to the $3.5 trillion proposal to reach agreement.

“If somebody wants to take something out, we need to hear what that is,” she said.

Pelosi didn’t commit when asked on ABC about a vote this week on the social spending and climate bill, which Democrats intend to pass with a simple majority without GOP support. She suggested that House-Senate agreement could be reached this week, depending on rulings from the Senate parliamentarian on what provisions could be included.

“We are ready on our side,” Pelosi said. “We just have to see how quickly the parliamentarian can operate.”

The overall bill embodies the crux of Biden’s top domestic goals, with billions for rebuilding infrastructure, tackling climate change and expanding or introducing a range of services, from free prekindergarten to dental, vision and hearing aid care for seniors.

But there are broad disputes on paying for the legislation as well as over which initiatives should be reshaped, among them expanded Medicare, tax breaks for children and health care, a push toward cleaner energy and higher levies on the rich and corporations.

Republicans say the proposal is unneeded, unaffordable amid accumulated federal debt exceeding $28 trillion and reflects Democrats’ drive to insert government into people’s lives. Its tax boosts will cost jobs and include credits for buying electric vehicles, purchases often made by people with comfortable incomes, they said.

Gottheimer spoke to CNN’s “State of the Union," and Jayapal appeared on CBS' “Face the Nation.”

Bridgeport housing authority asks feds for time to address issues

Brian Lockhart

BRIDGEPORT — The city’s public housing authority wants extra time to respond to federal requirements after the struggling agency was labeled in default of a plan to improve its management and living conditions for its 9,500 residents.

In four separate letters, Jillian Baldwin, the authority’s executive director since June 2020, the agency’s mayoral-appointed board, tenant leaders and Bridgeport’s congressional delegation all appealed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to grant the authority another in a history of extensions.

“While (we have) made phenomenal progress over the past year, a tremendous amount of work remains ahead,” Baldwin wrote. “The deadlines established in the notice of default create a situation wherein the agency will be overly burdened administratively and forced to choose between its continued progress and complying with the short timelines.”

“We understand and support the need for aggressive oversight of the authority. We have long been dismayed by the lack of progress,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, all Democrats, said in their correspondence to HUD.

However, the three lawmakers stated that the “depressing trajectory changed significantly” when Baldwin took over and she and her staff need “flexibility, time and assistance” to meet the list of default demands.

Rhonda Siciliano, a HUD spokesperson, said Friday the department “is still reviewing the extension request.”

Nearly seven years ago, in December 2014, HUD designated the authority, officially called Park City Communities, as “troubled” due to poor grades of its management, its finances and its aged low-income developments. Park City, technically, then had two years to right the situation or face penalties including takeovers by either the federal government or another Connecticut housing entity.

But instead HUD only last month, on Aug. 19, formally declared that Park City Communities was “in substantial default” for continuing, despite ongoing improvement efforts, to languish in troubled status. According to HUD, Bridgeport’s authority is the only such agency in Connecticut currently in such a dire condition.

Subsequently HUD issued a list of demands for information about how the authority was remedying the situation, each with a deadline of two to six months.

So, for example, within 60 calendar days of the default declaration, the authority was required to hand in several budget documents to the federal government, including “a narrative explanation of projected fiscal year 2022 subsidies, rent income, utility costs, deficits, cost saving measures (and) staffing plans consistent with its repositioning strategy.”

The authority was given 120 days to submit a “draft property management plan” for addressing the “health, safety and livability needs” at its apartment buildings.

And Park City Communities has 180 days to turn over another plan on the future of those structures and what is being done to either sustain them in the long-term or replace them. The authority has over the past several years been slowly transitioning from all-low-income buildings to mixed-income sites, demolishing the old developments and partnering with private firms to construct and manage the new ones. The latest property targeted for such an overhaul is the Charles F. Greene Homes.

Cowlis Andrews is a current member of Park City’s board and that group’s former chairman. On Thursday Andrews said the pleas for the extensions boil down to this already being a busy time of year for “limited staff” with “limited time.”

“We are working on normal business items, we are cleaning up ... issues and this presents another layer of reporting,” Andrews said. “Sept. 30 is the end of the federal fiscal year and our team starts to prepare for audits and reports to HUD annually. In addition, it is the end of the (fiscal) quarter and that’s an additional set of reports that are due.”

Bridgeport’s public housing has been plagued with problems for the past few decades, from Ganim’s first tenure in office, which ended in 2003, through the administrations of predecessors John Fabrizi and Bill Finch, to when Ganim was reelected in 2015.

Baldwin in an interview earlier this week said that soon after she was hired last year following a national search, HUD warned her that the agency was going to be declared in default. She insisted, though, that despite that label the situation has been greatly improving under her leadership.

“There were 141 recovery action items that had to take place to bring the agency out of troubled status and monitoring from HUD,” Baldwin said. “That was seven years ago. When I came here in 2020 ... 61 (action items) remained open.” She and her staff have reduced that to 26, Baldwin said.

Tenant leaders in their recent letter to HUD expressed support for Baldwin and her team.

“Although it will take some time, progress is being made and we have witnessed many constructive and encouraging changes,” the group wrote.

Ridgefield officials mull options to bring sewer project to fruition

Alyssa Seidman

RIDGEFIELD — Construction of a new pump line connecting two of the town’s sewer plants will break ground a year later than expected due to overage costs caused by the pandemic.

The installation of the infrastructure and subsequent closure of the District II sewage treatment plant, which serves the area around the intersection of Routes 7 and 35, was estimated to cost $5.8 million. The bids for that project, however, came in “substantially over what the estimate was,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.

The lowest bid came from M&O Construction Co., Inc. in New Milford at $8.3 million. Additional “soft costs,” such as on-site engineering, brings the total expenditure to more than $9 million, Marconi said.

“What we are looking at is a difference of ... over $3.4 million,” he added.

The question now is where the remaining funds to complete the project will come from. The town could either bond the money itself or use a portion of its American Rescue Plan allocation.

Because Ridgefield’s charter requires a referendum to approve an expenditure of more than $3 million, officials are eyeing to bring the cost below $3 million and move the item to a town meeting instead.

“To go to a referendum costs money as well,” Marconi explained.

On Monday, Marconi met with the town clerk, the registrar of voters and finance director Kevin Redmond to discuss potentially holding a referendum on Oct. 9. They also discussed potentially earmarking $500,000 from the Water Pollution Control Authority, which would bring the cost down to $2.9 million.

Additional grant funding could shave another $600,000 off the total, Marconi added, meaning the town would use less of the American Rescue Plan money.

The WPCA oversees all of Ridgefield’s sewer operations. This Monday members will convene to possibly vote on approving additional funds for the project, according to a meeting agenda.

A top-to-bottom renovation of the District I treatment plant on South Street is approximately 50 percent complete. The goal is to close the District II plant and pipe that wastewater to South Street for treatment at the upgraded District I plant through a new force-main sewer line.

Voters approved $48 million for the two projects in 2018. Both were designed and are being overseen by the consulting firm AECOM.

The state pushed the town to undertake the project to meet new regulations and environmental standards under the federal Clean Water Act. Upgrades to the District II plant, which is 30 years old, were sidelined since the town would’ve had to hire personnel to operate the facility 24/7.

“When you begin calculating all of those costs to upgrade the plant due to age and environmental standards, it’s extremely expensive, hence the reason to go with the pump station,” Marconi said. “The capacity numbers will not be impacted at all. Everyone who has sewage capacity in that plant today will have it tomorrow.”

Marconi expects the second phase of the sewer project to break ground in the spring of 2022.