TravelGuides – Biden’s economic agenda hangs in the balance after another delayed vote on infrastructure – live | US news

Joe Biden tweeted another photo from his one-on-one meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican this morning.

“It was an honor to meet with Pope Francis again at the Vatican today,” the president said in the tweet.

“I thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution, and lauded his leadership in fighting the climate crisis and ending the pandemic.”

And in an extremely on-brand moment for Biden, the US president apparently parted ways with the pope by telling him, “God love ya!”

Joe Biden met with Pope Francis in Vatican City this morning, marking the first time that the president has met with the Catholic leader since taking office in January.

Biden, who is only the second Catholic to ever serve as president of the United States, met one-on-one with the pope for about 90 minutes before participating in a bilateral meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.

“In his audience with Pope Francis today, President Biden thanked His Holiness for his advocacy for the world’s poor and those suffering from hunger, conflict, and persecution,” the White House said in its readout of the meeting.

“He lauded Pope Francis’ leadership in fighting the climate crisis, as well as his advocacy to ensure the pandemic ends for everyone through vaccine sharing and an equitable global economic recovery.”

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi did not get the vote she wanted on the bipartisan infrastructure bill yesterday, after the Congressional Progressive Caucus indicated its members would not support the proposal until the reconciliation package advanced as well.

But there was some good news for Pelosi yesterday: while delaying the infrastructure vote (again), the CPC also indicated its members support Joe Biden’s framework for the $1.75tn reconciliation package.

The president released the framework yesterday just before leaving for his week-long trip to Europe. The proposal includes $555bn to invest in climate initiatives and $400bn to expand access to prekindergarten and affordable childcare.

“The Congressional Progressive Caucus just overwhelmingly voted to endorse, in principle, the entire Build Back Better Act framework announced by President Biden,” CPC chair Pramila Jayapal said in a statement yesterday.

“The reality is that while talks around the infrastructure bill lasted months in the Senate, there has only been serious discussion around the specifics of the larger Build Back Better Act in recent weeks, thanks to the Progressive Caucus holding the line and putting both parts of the agenda back on the table. Now, Congress needs to finish the job and bring both bills to a vote together.”

So it is looking more and more likely that Democrats will be able to pass both the reconciliation package and the infrastructure bill, but it remains unclear when they will be able to do so.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.