Some Democratic lawmakers say that cutting red tape for infrastructure and housing is the key to the party’s future — and they think a new bipartisan caucus launched by California Democratic Rep. Josh Harder can help push it forward.
The House Build America Caucus, which launched on Thursday, builds off of some Democrats’ interest in the ideas laid out in “Abundance,” a book by columnists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Some of the criticisms at the center of the book, Rep. Jake Auchincloss told NOTUS, are “an important vein of ideas” for lawmakers in the caucus.
It was also borne out of frustration, Harder said.
“I voted for things in the Biden administration that I was really excited about. And then I haven’t seen the progress,” Harder said.
In 2022, California received over $850 million in federal funding to repair bridges in the state. Harder told NOTUS that despite this amount, repairs on a bridge in Modesto, California, are estimated to take more than 10 years to complete. “Kids are still driving across this bridge that’s not that safe, every single day. That’s unacceptable,” Harder said.
As the Democratic Party weighs its future, some moderates have argued that it’s crucial to push for pragmatic policy goals that focus on delivering ambitious infrastructure projects. Cutting red tape, though, can mean pushing labor, environmental and other interests to the back, leading to criticisms from some environmentalists and organizers.
Democrats have limited influence under the Republican trifecta, but caucus members said they hope they can work with Republican allies to get permitting, infrastructure and housing reform legislation into “must-pass” funding bills and defense authorization legislation. In part, that could mean appealing to the Trump administration’s stated goal of manufacturing more products in the U.S.
“We’re trying to bring manufacturing back to the United States,” California Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte told NOTUS. “I think if we could move the needle in that direction, everyone will benefit.”
While Democrats are not expecting to see many of the caucus’ goals in reconciliation, Obernolte told NOTUS he expects to at least see some permitting reform legislation in the Republican-led funding bill.
Harder said that some of the most ambitious goals that the caucus is pushing for, like creating incentives for pro-housing policies at the local level or reforming the litigation process under the National Environmental Policy Act, are more likely to pass in a bipartisan package in the future funding bills or the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, who is also part of the caucus, told NOTUS that he believes “Democrats and Republicans are really looking for the same things, where we differ often is on the tactics.”
“We won’t know where we’ll build a common ground until we begin,” Edwards said.
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.