Nine moderate Democrats will go up against the most powerful leaders in the party when US President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar national budget comes up in the House on Monday. The House will meet on Monday with Democratic leaders hoping for a short two-day debate. The session is an interruption of the lawmakers’ August recess. The party leaders want a quick approval of the budget resolution. The future passage of the bill will then happen in fall.

The $3.5 trillion plan is aimed at providing Americans a safety net and battling climate change. The bill would be majorly financed by increasing tax on the rich and big businesses.

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The moderates in the party have threatened to oppose the budget resolution unless the House first approves a $1 trillion infrastructure package. The package will go towards improving roads, power grids, broadband and other infrastructure in the country. The bill has already passed the Senate.

The moderates want Congress to quickly send the bipartisan infrastructure measure to Biden so he can sign it before the political winds shift. That would nail down a victory they could tout in their re-election campaigns next year.

“The House can’t afford to wait months or do anything to risk passing” the infrastructure bill, Rep Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, said Friday. He’s a leader of the nine moderate mavericks, who each released statements reaffirming their desire that the infrastructure vote come first.

As for the budget, the rebellious group will try to outmanoeuvre Speaker Nancy Pelosi and their other progressive colleagues. With unanimous Republican opposition expected to the fiscal blueprint, moderates’ nine votes would be more than enough to sink it in the narrowly divided House.

The US President is already under fire for withdrawal from Afghanistan and Democrats’ prospects uncertain in the 2022 elections for control of Congress.

Some solution averting a Biden setback in the House seems likely, but it was unclear what that would be.

Pelosi, top House Democrat since 2003, has a long history of doing what it takes to line up the votes she needs on important issues.

She said in a weekend letter to Democratic members of the House that it was critical to pass the budget resolution this week and that any delay threatens the timetable for delivering “the transformative vision that Democrats share.”

“It is essential that our Caucus proceeds unified in our determination to deliver once-in-a-century progress for the children,” she wrote.

(With AP inputs)