THE ROAD AHEAD
Senate moves closer to $1T infrastructure okay
The Senate pushed closer toward approving President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan on Monday, as members from both sides of the aisle rallied around the massive public works plan in a rare showing of bipartisanship.
The sprawling bill — which would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into fixing crumbling infrastructure like roads, transit systems and bridges around the country — was expected to get a final vote Tuesday morning after senators cleared the way for it in a 68-to-29 procedural tally, with 18 Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in support.
With victory in sight, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave his colleagues marching orders Monday to sell the popular plan and a second bigger one to their constituents during the coming August recess.
“It is critical that we go on offense during the recess to explain to the American people how our budget will lower costs and cut taxes for American families,” Schumer wrote in a letter to Democratic senators.
Given the procedural tally, the bipartisan bill is expected to draw final support from nearly half of the Republicans and all the
Democrats in the evenly divided Senate, a remarkable achievement in an age of bitter partisanship.
Rock-ribbed conservatives like Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) were seeking to use procedural motions to delay passage of the bill as former President Donald Trump hurled verbal grenades at moderate Republicans whom he accuses of handing Democrats a huge political victory in the infrastructure package.
“This will be a big victory for the Democrats and will be used against Republicans in the upcoming [midterm] elections,” Trump said in a statement.
But in a sign that Trump’s grip on the GOP is slipping, key Republicans pressed ahead on the infrastructure measure, eager to take credit for badly needed public works projects in their home states.
“This is something that brings this country together,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a lead negotiator, who is retiring and has little to fear from Trump’s outbursts. “We need the investment, let’s be honest.”
The bill appears to have more than enough votes to overcome any effort to block it with a filibuster.
“A very handsome, overwhelming vote,” Schumer said.
For weeks, senators have negotiated and shaped the package, overcoming partisan gridlock for a compromise with the Biden White House.
Backed by Biden and a coalition of business and labor groups, the package is one of the biggest investments of its kind in years. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act seeks to inject nearly $550 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, broadband internet, water pipes and other public works systems undergirding the nation.
After the infrastructure bill, senators plan to immediately turn to the budget outline for a $3.5 trillion package of child care, elder care and other programs that is a much more partisan undertaking and expected to draw only Democratic support.
Hagerty was seeking to throw a wrench into Monday’s momentum in part because he wants to slow the march toward the bigger Biden-proposed social spending bill.
The bipartisan bill still faces a less than certain future in the House, which is expected to consider the infrastructure and social spending measures at the same time when it returns from recess in September.
Progressives led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens, Bronx) say they will not vote to pass the bipartisan bill unless fellow Democrats go along with the bigger bill, too. That raises the possibility of another political tightrope walk for Democratic leaders seeking to shepherd the complicated bills to passage with nearly no votes to spare.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled a version of the $3.5 trillion plan Monday. It includes a raft of popular new education, work and family programs and proposes to expand Medicare to include vision, hearing and dental coverage and make permanent a pandemic-era expanded child tax credit.
The measure does not call for an increase in the debt ceiling, meaning Democrats will face a separate fight over that with Republicans, who say the bill will blow up the federal budget deficit.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) accused Democrats of sticking future generations with a huge bill to placate the progressive wing of their party.
“If [Democrats] don’t want Republicans’ input, they don’t need our help,” he said. “They deserve to have total ownership of that decision.”