Oct. 18, 2021: Its crunch time (again) on Capitol Hill
Congress returns from recess today with 13 days until Speaker Nancy Pelosi's new Halloween deadline to pass the party\u2019s package of infrastructure and social services legislation. One problem: The latter has yet to be written \u2014 or really even outlined.\nAnd yet: A series of calls Sunday with sources we trust to give us an honest read on the state of play turned up some genuine optimism they can get it done. At least perhaps an outline of an agreement.\nThe end of October is both the official deadline to renew transportation funding and the effective deadline to provide a boost to Democrat Terry McAuliffe in his surprisingly close campaign for Virginia governor. As Heather Caygle and Burgess Everett wrote over the weekend, there\u2019s a recognition among top Democrats that they\u2019ve got to get this done to help save the state \u2014 and that a loss could be seen as an indictment of the party\u2019s legislative agenda.\nRaghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio.\xa0Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.