Pelosi Hunts for Infrastructure Votes as Democrats Feud

On provisions to pay for the package, he was more in line with other Democrats, backing several rollbacks of the Trump-era tax cut of 2017, including raising the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, up from 21 percent; setting a top individual income tax rate of 39.6 percent, up from 37 percent; and increasing the capital gains tax rate to 28 percent, another substantial boost.

But that tax agreement ran counter to the position of the other Democratic holdout, Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who has told colleagues she opposes such significant tax rate increases.

As of Thursday evening, Ms. Pelosi was still pressing forward with a vote on the infrastructure bill, projecting relentless optimism as competing groups of liberal and moderate lawmakers shuttled in and out of her office.

“We’re on a path to win the vote — I don’t want to even consider any options other than that,” she declared at her weekly news conference.

Ms. Pelosi, 81, who wrangled the Affordable Care Act through the House 11 years ago, put her reputation as a legislative powerhouse on the line in the talks, saying she had told top Democrats that the social policy and climate measure was “the culmination of my career in Congress.”

As the sun set in Washington, Susan E. Rice, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, were huddled in her office with her aides and with staff of the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, trying to hammer out a social policy framework that could satisfy the warring factions, according to an official.

Some Democrats saw Mr. Manchin’s memo as at least a starting point for negotiations that have foundered in the absence of a clear signal from him or Ms. Sinema about what they could accept.

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