Ocasio-Cortez Warns Democrats Could 'Dump' $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned that congressional Democrats could "dump" the president's $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and not hold a vote on it.

Ocasio-Cortez told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday that the Build Back Better bill, which would also expand the social safety net, could be dropped after the House of Representatives votes on Thursday on a separate bipartisan package, which would invest $1.2 trillion in "traditional" infrastructure.

Progressives including Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents New York's 14th district, have said the passage of the two bills must be linked and suggested they will not vote for the bipartisan package unless the larger bill also advances.

Ocasio-Cortez said on Wednesday the "vast majority" of Democrats supported the $3.5 trillion plan, but a minority opposed it.

"A very small handful of Democrats, about 4 percent of the party, are trying to essentially split these two priorities up," she said.

Ocasio-Cortez went on: "And what they want to do is split them apart, force a vote on the first one [the $1.2 trillion bill], and because we have such narrow margins in the Senate and the House, you know, the read that we have is that they'll just dump the second one, leave the other one out to dry and just never actually vote on it."

She added: "So, the way that we bring our two parts of the caucus together is by saying, 'You know what, my bill is bound up in your bill and your bill is bound up in my bill.'

"So, do I love this very—what I would argue—conservative, underfunded bill? No. But I will vote for it if we pursue them both together. But what we should not take is this approach, which is what people are trying to do by forcing a vote tomorrow on an under-considered, under-amended bill by itself by saying, 'We wanna force this vote right now and it's either my way or the highway.'"

Ocasio-Cortez said the two groups in the Democratic Party should work together on the issue, but she also warned about Thursday's vote on the bipartisan package. The $1.2 trillion program was approved by the Senate in August with bipartisan support.

"If we vote for this bill tomorrow, Rachel, I want to be very clear about this," she said. "If we vote for this underfunded, too small infrastructure bill alone, instead of voting for it with the rest of the president's agenda, if we vote for it alone, it could make our climate crisis worse and it risks being the only or the last substantive piece of legislation that we will pass."

"I do not believe—we do not have the assurances necessary to believe in good faith—that reconciliation will pass if infrastructure passes tomorrow," Ocasio-Cortez said.