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In the scramble to save President Joe Biden’s agenda, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) solidified her role as one of the most powerful members of Congress this week, arguably second only to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
What happened: As chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the first Indian American woman elected to the House, Jayapal emerged in the national spotlight as a critical negotiator, holding firm on her commitment to pass the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which would fund historic investments in universal pre-K, affordable housing, education, and health care.
Why it’s complicated: The spending package—a priority for progressives—had been linked with a separate bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill touted by moderate Democrats, a strategy employed by Pelosi to push both acts through Congress. But on Monday, Pelosi unlinked the two pieces of legislation, scheduling the infrastructure bill for a vote first while making few commitments on the Build Back Better Act. In response, Jayapal and a majority of her progressives colleagues threatened to pull their votes and doom the infrastructure bill.
Amid the legislative chaos, Jayapal testified Thursday at a committee hearing on abortion rights, which comes as the Biden administration challenges Texas’ abortion crackdown in court. The third-term lawmaker publicly shared her abortion story for the first time in 2019 but said in an MSNBC interview Wednesday that testifying “puts it in the record.”
“I would never tell people who don’t choose to have an abortion that they should; nor should they tell me that I shouldn’t,” Jayapal said. “This is a constitutionally protected, intensely personal choice.”
Jayapal wasn’t the only Asian American woman lawmaker in headlines this week. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida), a Vietnamese refugee and chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, was one of the key lawmakers who pushed for a Thursday vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But no vote came, much to moderates’ dismay, leaving Murphy “profoundly disappointed and disillusioned by this process.”
What’s next: As of Friday, more than 50 progressives led by Jayapal have succeeded in pressuring Pelosi to delay the vote on infrastructure—an unprecedented step that demonstrates the growing clout of the Democratic Party’s more liberal wing. Whether it will ultimately lead to a deal remains to be seen. “Courage is born out of crisis,” Jayapal told The New York Times. “It is a muscle; you have to learn to flex it.”
