Oct. 18, 2021: It’s 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’s package of infrastructure and social services legislation. One problem: The latter has yet to be written — or really even outlined.

And 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.

The 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’s a recognition among top Democrats that they’ve got to get this done to help save the state — and that a loss could be seen as an indictment of the party’s legislative agenda.

Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. 
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.

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