‘These things are related. If you´re going to build the infrastructure, you must have workforce development,’ Pelosi said Thursday, after Biden last week introduced the contours of his ambitious infrastructure proposal, which features traditional projects like roads, bridges and public transit. But he’s also vowing additional — but nontraditional — items under the same infrastructure title, which are expected to include provisions like child care, elder care and family tax credits.

Democrats have been vague about how those pieces would fit together as the debate evolves, with some suggesting party leaders should simply lump everything together into an enormous package and move it to Biden’s desk using a procedural gambit, known as reconciliation, that would prevent Senate Republicans from blocking it with a filibuster.

Yet Pelosi says she’s still holding out hope for bipartisan support — at least on the physical infrastructure portion of the package — and predicted Thursday that Democrats will split the legislation into two pieces.

‘I think we will have two bills,’ she told reporters on a press call. ‘We’re hoping that we can do —especially [the] infrastructure bill— with [bipartisan support]. … If we have to go to reconciliation, that’s a lever, but I hope it’s not something that we’ll need to do.’

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