Senate leader seeks to advance infrastructure bills

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pressuring lawmakers to reach agreement by this week on a pair of major domestic spending measures, signaling Democrats’ desire to push ahead aggressively on President Biden’s multitrilliondollar agenda.

Schumer, DN.Y., is scheduling a procedural vote for Wednesday to begin debate on a stillevolving bipartisan infrastructure bill. Senators from both parties, bargaining for weeks, have struggled to reach final agreement on a $1 trillion package of highway, water systems and other public works projects.

Schumer said he also wants Democratic senators to reach agreement among themselves by then on specific details of a separate 10year budget blueprint that envisions $3.5 trillion in spending for climate change, education, an expansion of Medicare and more.

“The time has come to make progress. And we will. We must,” Schumer said.

The majority leader’s plans are an attempt to push lawmakers to work out differences so Democrats can advance their plans to fortify the economy for the long term and help lowerearning and middleclass families while imposing higher taxes on wealthy people and large corporations.

“There may be some lastminute discussion as to who, what mechanism is used to pay for each of these items,” Biden said last week of the two measures. “But I believe we will get it done.”

Lawmakers working on the smaller infrastructure package chafed at Schumer’s deadline. They indicated that hurdles remain, including how to pay for the nearly $579 billion in new spending over five years that they agreed to with the White House. The rest of the money in the infrastructure proposal is a renewal of existing programs.

Sen. Rob Portman, ROhio, on Sunday called that an “arbitrary deadline” and one that was premature given that senators haven’t even agreed on details of the bill yet. “We want to get it right. It’s not too much to ask that we have time to do that,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

It will take 60 votes to start debating the infrastructure measure because Republicans are expected to use a filibuster to try killing it. That means the chamber’s 50 Democrats will need support from at least 10 Republicans.