DEMS IN ARRAY — Democrats are close to clinching a win on a bill that looked impossible just weeks ago. The House takes up the cornerstone legislation of Democrats' domestic agenda, which has been counted out and left for dead more than once in the last year and a half. Now it is about to cross the finish line. The $700 billion-plus energy, tax and health care policy package is the sole legislative agenda item today, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) confirmed that the Democrats' slate of policing bills won't see action this week. The measure delivers on key promises that Democrats have been pushing for a decade: to act on climate change and lower prescription drug costs under Medicare. House Democrats are expected to be nearly united in support of the measure, with concerns from certain corners smoothed out in the days since the Senate cleared the bill. Only a few members haven't made their intentions clear ahead of Friday, report Sarah and Jordain . Keep an eye on Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas). Golden was the lone Democrat in the House to vote against an earlier, more sweeping, version when it was still called Build Back Better and Gonzalez said he remains undecided on how he'll vote. Don't count on any amendment action. None of the eighty-three amendment proposals submitted by Republicans were made in order for floor consideration. Any changes made by the House would require the bill to return to the Senate. Do count on procedural delays. Republicans are expected to throw up roadblocks, calling for additional procedural votes, to drag out consideration of the measure. The mid-afternoon estimate for final passage could be pushed later and later depending on how many fruitless votes Republicans can force. Republicans have slammed every section of the bill, from climate to taxes and health care. "If the Green New Deal and corporate welfare had a baby, it would look like this," House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said during Wednesday's Rules Committee meeting. Republican attacks against the measure are sure to ramp up once the House passes it and President Joe Biden signs it into law. The flurry of unaddressed amendments lay out a sort of blueprint for the GOP attacks, spotlighting the issues they will focus on, including new Internal Revenue Service funding and tax credits for electric vehicles. The Biden Administration has already responded to the GOP talking point that more IRS funding will spur audits of middle class Americans, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen directing the IRS not to use new funding to increase the chance of audits for Americans making less than $400,000. It may be too soon to say if this massive measure, passed along party lines, could become a target for wholesale repeal by Republicans the way that Obamacare was for many years. Republicans never achieved that goal, but took dozens of votes while in the majority to try and make it happen. There's already talk among Republicans of launching a repeal effort if they take the House next year. But that would meet a certain veto from Biden. A preview of today's action from Sarah and Jordain: Democrats in array at last, with domestic agenda in bloom RELATED: A bittersweet health care win for Democrats , from Alice Miranda Olstein; GOP's risky proposition: Rebuffing a fossil fuel-friendly climate bill , from Josh Siegel ALSO: Sinema's last-minute push on Democrats' climate bill added $4 billion to combat Western drought , from Jennifer Haberkorn and Ian James of The Los Angeles Times
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