With an assist from Sarah Ferris, Nicholas Wu and Andrew Desiderio

FULL SPEED AHEAD — House Democratic leaders are forging ahead and attempting to project momentum for the beleaguered two-track effort on the party’s legislative priorities. There’s fresh bill text and promises of votes soon. But with multiple self-imposed deadlines trampled in the rearview, leaders have not pinned the latest effort to a tangible timeline. Rules met Wednesday on the new text and recessed “subject to the call of the chair” after midnight.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer made clear at a closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday that they are pushing ahead for votes as soon as possible on both the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill and the latest version of Democrats’ social spending measure. At this time, it’s unclear that they’ll wait for the Senate’s blessing.

If you want to know how far into reading the more than 2,000 page draft Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is, Burgess has you covered.

Majority Whip James Clyburn started a whip count on the new text Wednesday evening, asking, “Will you SUPPORT H.R. 5376, Build Back Better Act?” with a response deadline of 11 this morning. You can sleep on it, but he wants to know where everyone stands before lunchtime.

A moderate calculation: One thing to watch Thursday and Friday is how this full-speed-ahead plan is viewed by the key handful of moderates who have said they don’t want a vote until they see a Congressional Budget Office score and get assurances that Senate Democrats have the votes to pass the latest version of the House bill.

Keeping score: Budget Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) says getting a full score from CBO could take two weeks, if not longer. “Most of it’s been scored, but there’s some interactions with the tax stuff that makes it a little bit complicated to score,” he said Wednesday. But he said the nonpartisan cost estimators are “100 percent devoted to this process right now.”

“We don't need a CBO score to take it to the floor,” Pelosi told her caucus at the meeting, according to multiple sources familiar with remarks.

Pelosi also laid out the order of business, as she’d like it. “I recommend we vote on BBB first," pushing for a vote on the hot-off-the-presses spending plan ahead of the long-solidified infrastructure bill. But several mods say the Senate-passed bill must be first.

“The infrastructure bill is ready to go and it needs to have a vote,” Florida’s Stephanie Murphy, one of the moderates pushing for a full CBO analysis, told Sarah in response to Pelosi’s plan to move the spending plan first.

Immigration is another looming question mark, as Democrats are still intent on including immigration provisions in the social spending bill, without clarity on if a revamped proposal could get the OK from the Senate parliamentarian. (She’s already denied two of Democrats’ other proposals.)

Rep. Chuy Garcia of Illinois, one of three Latino Democrats who had tied his vote on the social spending plan to its inclusion of immigration provisions, told Nick the latest draft text’s provisions might not be enough for him. (Much more on that in a bit.)

“We need to focus on what we can actually get signed into law. Anything else is selling immigrants a false hope, and that’s unfair,” Murphy told reporters after the caucus meeting.

At the end of the Democrats’ confab Wednesday evening, Virginia frontliner Rep. Abigail Spanberger told her colleagues “We need to keep the majority,” sources listening told POLITICO. Those outside the meeting room could hear the roaring applause she got in response.

GOOD MORNING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Thursday, Nov. 4, where I’m LIVING for your go-to food orders in the Capitol complex. Keep ‘em coming.

MOTIVATION: IMMIGRATION — Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), said he wasn’t satisfied with the scaled-back immigration provisions and he’s got allies. He told Nicholas: "If it were up to me, I would have a pathway for all 11 million" undocumented immigrants. But, he continued, “it is what it is, so we’re going to start talking to members and seeing what we can do.”

For Garcia, who met with Pelosi before the Dem’s caucus meeting, his position remains. He wants there to be “meaningful” reform in any package in order for it to earn his vote.

He and other lawmakers spent Wednesday afternoon and evening taking the temperature of the caucus to see how it’d respond to an amendment to the bill text that would include a proposal to change the date on a decades-old registry law to provide more undocumented immigrants with legal status. The Senate parliamentarian already rejected the registry proposal, but Garcia argued it was worth having both provisions in the bill anyway.

“Depending on how we fare we’ll be in communication with the speaker,” he said. “We're hoping that there will be a possibility for an amendment if we're able to demonstrate that we can pass it out of the House.”

What’s already in the bill? The latest draft text includes a five-year work authorization and protections for undocumented immigrants — but lacks the long-sought goal of a pathway to citizenship many Democrats wanted.

In the meantime, Garcia told Nicholas he was undecided on the social spending bill.

“I'm thinking about it. But again, given my position that it has to include immigration reform, I would prefer that registry be in the bill and that's what we're striving for now,” he said.

FIRST IN HUDDLE: CLUB FOR GROWTH TARGETS MOD SQUAD — The conservative Club for Growth is launching a $2.5 million digital media buy in the congressional districts of nine key moderate House Democrats, urging citizens to contact their representative and ask them to vote against the Democrats’ social spending reconciliation bill.

“We are asking people from these key nine Congressional Districts to ask their U.S. House Members to take a stand against the out-of-control spending and new taxes. Prices are skyrocketing for American families, and the so-called solutions proposed by Democrats will just take a bad situation and make it worse,” said Club for Growth’s president David McIntosh in a statement.

You can probably guess the gang of nine moderates being targeted, but here they are: Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), Carolyn Bourdeaux (Ga.), Ed Case (Hawaii), Cindy Axne (Iowa), Jared Golden (Maine), Chris Pappas (N.H.), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.) and Abigail Spanberger (Va.).

MORE THAN A HANDFUL — Before adjourning Wednesday night, the Senate confirmed Thomas Nides by voice vote to be U.S. ambassador to Israel. Just 24 hours earlier, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was objecting to Nides’ swift confirmation on behalf of some of his GOP colleagues who were demanding floor votes on a slew of State Department nominations. It’s unclear what changed from Tuesday night to Wednesday night; but Nides is Biden’s sixth Senate-confirmed foreign ambassador — which is still well behind the Senate’s pace from the Donald Trump presidency.

FISCAL SOTU — The House cleared, under suspension of the rules, a resolution introduced by Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Andy Barr (R-Ky.) that would require the Comptroller General to present the Financial Report of the United States Government in an annual joint hearing of the House and Senate Budget Committees. The measure checks off another one of the Select Committee on Modernization’s recommendations from the 116th Congress.

“If we’re going to get a handle on our long-term fiscal challenges and have an economy that works better for everyone, we’ve got to occasionally hear a clear statement of the nation’s financial realities from a non-partisan, unbiased source,” said Modernization Chair Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) “As the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress looked at proposals to improve the budget and appropriations process, we recommended this as an important reform. We congratulate Congresswoman Rice and Congressman Barr for their progress.”

More modernizing: The Modernization panel holds a hearing this morning on strengthening congressional oversight. (9 a.m., 210 Cannon.)

BIG MOVE FOR MAJORITY LEADER — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer introduced a bill Wednesday that aligns with the global pledge that President Joe Biden entered the US into this week to end and reverse deforestation. As majority leader, Hoyer rarely sponsors or introduces his own legislation, instead taking the lead on shepherding other members’ bills over the finish line. The move comes as Hoyer plans to head to the UN Climate Change Conference in Scotland in the coming days.

What's in it: Hoyer's legislation would establish a $9 billion trust fund at the US State Department to finance forest conservation projects in partnership with developing countries around the world, the same amount Biden said the US should contribute.

“Addressing the critical challenge of deforestation is an issue I have cared deeply about for many years,” Hoyer said in a statement. “This is an issue that demands urgent action and long-term commitment as part of the broader global effort to confront the climate crisis."

COPS TROUNCE CONGRESS — Members of the Capitol Police faced off against members of Congress Wednesday. No, not over metal detectors or the downplaying of the Jan. 6 attack, but under the bright lights of Audi Field for the 16th Congressional Football Game.

The event raises funds for the Capitol Police Memorial Fund, which has been drained to nearly half this year following the violent assaults officers faced during the siege of the Capitol. The crowd topped 2,000 fans and the event raised more than $600,000, reported CQ Roll Call’s Jim Saksa. Don’t miss his recap, including the trash talk and action shots from photographer Bill Clark: Congress also gridlocked on the gridiron, loses to Capitol Police

DELIVER THIS — Reps. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) and Josh Harder (D-Calif.) teamed up to introduce a bill today that aims at easing the logjam of 150 ships anchored and idling off the West coast, waiting to unload at California’s ports. The bipartisan bill would create an interagency task force combining the efforts of more than a dozen federal departments and agencies to work on addressing the backlog at the Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports and along the Southern California coast. Read the bill here.

VIEW FROM THE GALLERY

“EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES” — Your Huddle host watched Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) break out the air quotes on the floor Wednesday, while in a conversation with Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and the Democrats’ problem pair Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The conversation was long and ranged from serious to chuckle-inducing, but it must have touched on the debt limit because the phrase between McConnells air quotes was “extraordinary measures.”

QUICK LINKS

Senate GOP sees Youngkin's Trump approach as path back to majority, from Burgess

Reeling From Surprise Losses, Democrats Sound the Alarm for 2022, from Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns at the New York Times, featuring: this Spanberger quote about Biden: “Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.”

2 federal judges are poised to quietly begin unlocking reams of Jan. 6 secrets for Congress, by Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein

TRANSITIONS

Mia Ehrenberg is now comms director for Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.). She most recently was deputy press secretary for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

TODAY IN CONGRESS:

The House convenes at noon for legislative business.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. with votes at 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.

AROUND THE HILL

9:30 a.m. Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) hold a press conference on the Racial Equity Working Group's priority legislation to address racial inequities.

10 a.m. Senate HELP Committee hearing on next steps for Covid response. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock participate, among others. G-50 Dirksen.

10:30 s.m. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) holds a press conference on the Democrats’ social spending bill (Senate TV Studio)

10:45 a.m. Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds her weekly press conference (HVC Studio A)

11 a.m. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and others hold a press conference calling for a CBO score prior to a vote on the reconciliation bill. (House Triangle)

Noon Sen. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho) and ranking members hold a press conference on the committee process to vet Democrats' proposals (Senate TV Studio)

1:45 p.m. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on supply chain issues (S-115)

3:10 p.m. (approximate time) Pelosi holds a ceremonial swearing-in for representatives-elect Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) and Mike Carey (R-Ohio). (H-207)

TRIVIA

WEDNESDAY’S WINNER: That was a stumper! No one correctly answered that Sen. Daniel Webster lost his party’s nomination in 1832, 1836, and 1852. He declined the vice presidency under William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848. (Both presidents who offered him the VP spot later died in office!)

As secretary of State when President Harrison died, he became acting president for two days, awaiting the arrival of VP John Tyler in D.C. to be sworn into office.

TODAY’S QUESTION: On what date were the most flags flown over the Capitol?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected]

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