US House passes historic $1tn infra bill in big win for Biden

WASHINGTON: The US House approved a $1 trillion package of road and other infrastructure projects after Democrats resolved a months-long standoff between progressives and moderates, notching a victory that President Joe Biden and his party had become increasingly anxious to claim.

The House passed the measure 228-206 late on Friday, prompting prolonged cheers from the relieved Democratic side of the chamber.

Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the legislation while six of Democrats’ farthest left members — including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri — opposed it.

Approval of the bill, which would create legions of jobs and improve broadband, water supplies and other public works, whisked it to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose nervous party got a cold shoulder from voters in this week’s offyear elections.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates were defeated in Virginia and squeaked through in New Jersey, two blue-leaning states.

Those setbacks made party leaders — and moderates and progressives alike — impatient to produce impactful legislation and demonstrate they know how to govern. Democrats can ill afford to seem in disarray a year before midterm elections that could result in Republicans regaining congressional control.

“Generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st Century,” Biden said in a written statement early on Saturday.