I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, September 30th.

Now Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn and Queens, if you've been listening since the beginning of the show, you know that he was supposed

to lead us off, but he got called into a leadership meeting on the infrastructure vote scheduled

for today and the tensions between more progressive and more centrist Democrats over whether

they will approve the bill if it's not linked to the larger human infrastructure bill

for child care, elder care, paid family leave, and climate protections.

So Congressman Jeffries, thanks as always for coming on with us,

and thanks for coming on right away after the meeting. Welcome back to WNYC.

Good morning, Brian. Great to be on with you.

So, deal or no deal?

Well, we remain on a positive trajectory and path toward getting both the bipartisan infrastructure agreement done as well as the Build Back Better Act done because the priorities

of the American people need to be met, and both bills will play a

role in doing that in decisive fashion. When you talk about the infrastructure agreement, it makes

the largest federal investment in public transit ever, the largest federal investment in passenger

rail since the creation of Amtrak. The single

largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system back

during the Dwight Eisenhower years. It makes the largest investment in clean drinking water

and wastewater infrastructure in American history and perhaps equally significant

in the context of this pandemic that we're in will ensure that every single American has access

to high-speed internet and can afford it.

So it's going to create millions of good-paying jobs in areas of significant need.

But at the same time, we recognize

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