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“Each and every one of my votes here in D.C. has been in the interest of saving lives,” Representative Cori Bush, an activist-minded freshman from St. Louis, proclaimed of her dissent. “And tonight was no different.”

Two squeamish centrists, Representatives Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Jared Golden of Maine, withheld their signatures from a key statement that secured enough liberal votes for the infrastructure bill. That statement, using Mr. Biden’s name for the social welfare and climate bill, declared, “We commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act, in its current form other than technical changes,” as soon as the signers obtain an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office consistent with White House figures showing that the measure is fully paid for. With those two signatures withheld, it appears Ms. Pelosi can afford only one or two more defections to save the sprawling bill from defeat.

On the other side of the aisle, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia sicced her social media followers on the Republicans who dared vote for spending vast sums of money, some of it for projects in their districts: “These are the 13 ‘Republicans’ who handed over their voting cards to Nancy Pelosi to pass Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure,” she wrote on Twitter before listing their names and office phone numbers.

Although 19 Republican senators, including their leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had voted for the bill in August, Republican leaders in the House pressed their members to oppose the measure, to further the image of a rudderless Democratic majority. And the vast majority of House Republicans did just that, hoping to deny Mr. Biden and Democrats a victory ahead of next year’s midterms — even though the legislation would bring big projects and jobs to many of their states and districts.

Ms. Pelosi’s mobilizing of the Black Caucus was deft. House leaders figured the liberals of the Progressive Caucus would be more receptive to African American members than them — even though most of the group of Black members who carried the compromise forward were also members of leadership or Ms. Pelosi’s lieutenants.

“The C.B.C. wants to land the plane because the C.B.C. represents communities that have the most to gain,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic Caucus chairman who was also part of the Black caucus group that brokered the compromise. “It’s no more complicated than that.”