“Passing transformative legislation is not easy — it’s hard, very hard,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader. “But the long hours we are putting in, the discussions we have had, some of them quite pointed, will be worth it.”
With Republicans unanimously opposed, Democrats are pushing the social policy and climate measure through Congress under a special process known as reconciliation that shields budget-related legislation from a filibuster and allows it to pass on a simple majority. But with slim margins of control, Democrats need the votes of each of their senators and all but a few of their members in the House to pass the bill.
That means that any single Democratic defector — or a small group of them in the House — can effectively torpedo the legislation.
In a letter this week, five Democrats — including Representatives Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Golden of Maine — urged Ms. Pelosi to grant them at least 72 hours to review the text of the reconciliation bill and wait for a full analysis from congressional scorekeepers confirming that the bill was fully paid for.
“It is better to get this done right than to needlessly rush its consideration only for our constituents to discover the negative impacts of our unintended consequences,” the lawmakers wrote.
The Joint Committee on Taxation released a report on Thursday that estimated that the tax increases in the bill would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade. But a separate nonpartisan agency, the Congressional Budget Office, has yet to publish a formal analysis of how much the bill would spend or how much revenue would be generated by other proposals, including a plan to lower the cost of prescription drugs and beef up the I.R.S.’s ability to collect unpaid taxes.
Ms. Pelosi and her deputies stressed that much of the legislation has been public, after two months of committee hearings, private talks and drafts. Her office and White House officials circulated separate, preliminary estimates that found that the bill was fully paid for and would help reduce the deficit, a key priority for many moderates.