Last week, something unusual happened: The Congressional Progressive Caucus won a clear, if temporary, victory against the more conservative members of the House Democratic Caucus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) conceded to pressure from the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) on Sept. 30 when she delayed a promised vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill favored by conservative Democrats .

The Houses 96-person progressive bloc, once dismissed as too large and ideologically inchoate to wield real power, had made clear that it had the votes to tank the infrastructure bill, pending firmer guarantees about the passage of the more progressive Build Back Better budget reconciliation package.

Normally, conservative Democrats, who are typically more willing than progressives to let legislation die, are the most adept at using hardball tactics to dictate the partys agenda.

But a unique confluence of events, plus years of organizing, prepared the CPC to become an influential bloc on par with any other faction in the party.

Its just been an amazing show of collective force, CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the architect of progressives power play, told HuffPost. I think people are really feeling the power of working as a collective and seeing the pride that comes in putting the Build Back Better bill back on the table where otherwise it would have been dead.