Key Senate vote advances Biden’s infrastructure bill
By Lisa Mascaro
WASHINGTON — The Senate moved closer to passing a $1 trillion infrastructure package Saturday after lawmakers from both parties came together and voted to clear a key procedural hurdle. More votes will be needed before Senate passage of one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities.
The measure would provide a massive injection of federal money for a range of public works programs, from roads and bridges to broadband internet access, drinking water and others. In a rare stroke of bipartisanship, Republicans joined Democrats during the weekend session to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure toward final votes. The vote was 67-27.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the first of Biden’s two infrastructure packages. The administration and congressional leaders will soon turn to a second, larger package that is expected to draw only Democratic support.
“We can get this done the easy way or the hard way,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as the Senate opened. He said he would keep senators in session until they finished the bill and sent it to the House.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrived on Capitol Hill for meetings on the legislation, which Biden said offered a potentially “historic investment,” on par with the building of the transcontinental railroad or interstate highway system.
The Senate appeared on track to approve the bill.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has so far allowed the bill to progress.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a first part of Biden’s infrastructure agenda. It would inject $550 billion of new spending over the next five years on roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband and other projects to virtually every corner of the nation.
For senators who have been slogging through debate — and months of give-and-take negotiations — it’s a chance not only to send federal dollars to their states, but also to show the country that Congress can work together in a bipartisan way to solve problems.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the needs in her state were obvious — including money for water systems in remote villages without running taps for hand-washing during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as one of the negotiators, she also wants to demonstrate that lawmakers can unite.
“I’m really worried that everybody believes that we’re as dysfunctional as we appear to be, and so to prove otherwise, it’s kind of important,” she said. “The Senate needs some demonstrated acts of bipartisanship.” The weekend action comes as Congress is under pressure to make gains on the president’s infrastructure priorities — first with the bipartisan bill and then Democrats’ more sweeping $3.5 trillion budget blueprint they plan to shoulder on their own.
If senators wrap up work on the bipartisan bill, they immediately will turn to the much more partisan undertaking on Biden’s agenda, the outline for the $3.5 trillion proposal. That plan would provide billions in what the White House calls human infrastructure — child care support, home health care, education and other expenditures that are Democratic priorities that Republicans have pledged to reject.
Senators have found much to like in the bill, even though it does not fully satisfy liberals, who view it as too small, or conservatives, who find it too large. It would provide federal money for projects many states and cities could not afford on their own.