Pelosi enters pivotal stretch on Biden agenda

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) faces daunting days ahead as she races to unite feuding factions of her restive caucus and pass a massive social benefits package at the heart of President Biden's agenda, along with a separate infrastructure bill, before November.

It all makes for a heavy lift, one steeped in urgency and carrying potentially momentous consequences for both a party facing tough odds of keeping the House in next year’s midterms, and a president who’s sinking in the polls and desperately needs a big legislative win.

To pull it off, Pelosi is attempting to thread a delicate needle, weighing the demands of energized liberals — who view Biden’s occupancy in the Oval Office as a rare opportunity for Democrats to realize their most ambitious policy designs — against those of cautious moderates, who are sounding alarms about deficit spending, government overreach and the harm the debate might do to their 2022 reelection prospects.