It’s no longer a framework: On Sunday night, senators officially unveiled the text of a bipartisan infrastructure agreement that evolved after months of negotiations between a bipartisan organization of lawmakers.
“This bill represents the largest investment in our infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday in the Senate.
Completed in a rare weekend session, the bill, titled The Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act, is 2,702 pages long. The $1. 2 trillion bill includes a $550 bill in new spending over five years. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he expected a vote on the last passage “in a few days. “
“I know it’s been tough, and I know it’s been a long time,” Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Sunday night on the Senate floor. “And what I’m proud to say is what our ancestors tried to create when they created a governance formula that required Republicans and Democrats to come in combination in an equivalent branch of government and paints with others and with the administration to locate legislation and responses that meet the wishes of Americans and families. , the businesses, the communities in our country. “
‘A LITTLE MORE’: LIBERALS CALL FOR INCREASED FRAGILE DEAL ON SENATE SPENDING
The bill includes investment for physical infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and waterways, as well as a $65 bill to expand broadband and investment for electric vehicle charging stations.
The bill is expected to pass on a bipartisan basis as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has shown for the bill, and more than a dozen Republican senators got procedural votes last week to begin debate on the legislation.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin expects the deal to pass the Senate through Thursday, he told CNN on Sunday.
The House departed for the August recess on Friday and is not expected to resume operations until Sept. 20, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said lawmakers could be called in earlier, perhaps for the infrastructure deal. , if you wish. Discussions on the personnel point deserve to continue.
If the infrastructure proposal passes the Senate, it will face more obstacles in the House.
Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House of Commons Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said last week that the Senate edition of the bill didn’t include enough transit spending and measures for fossil fuel consumption.
Pelosi said she wouldn’t start paying attention to the $1. 2 trillion bill until Senate Democrats also approve a separate $3. 5 trillion framework targeting social systems and “human infrastructure” as a component of the reconciliation process, which overlooks the need for Republicans in the deeply divided Senate.
The long term of the parallel bill is unclear after Sinema, whose vote in the similarly divided Senate is likely mandatory for approval, said last week that the value of the $3,500 bill is too high.
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman dismissed the reconciliation proposal in a speech Sunday, saying the bipartisan bill “was going to raise inflation like some of the other spending we’re talking about. “
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney defended the progression of a bipartisan proposal, saying that “members of either party have mischaracterised our efforts as if they were connected in some to prepare the Democrats’ wish list of $3,500 billion. “
“If you don’t think our Democratic friends are going to push for this monstrosity, with or without this bill, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you,” Romney said. “They’re going to pressure it from everyone modos. es a separate bill. I love this one. I hate that one. They are two very different things and there will be an effort, obviously, to keep this bill from going ahead. “
Schumer said Sunday that he was determined to achieve the two-way goal of also passing a reconciliation bill this month.
Lawmakers further to the left of the Democratic House have threatened to block passage of the bipartisan proposal for a reconciliation bill.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We can’t have a singles framework that spans the entire legislative calendar of the country,” New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Sunday. “If there is no reconciliation bill in the House and if the Senate does not. approve the reconciliation bill, we will respect our market share and we will not pass the bipartisan bill until we get all those investments. “
The New York rep. said the number of Democrats on the House Progressive Caucus who won’t vote for the bipartisan bill without the reconciliation agreement is in the double digits, “more than enough” to prevent it from passing.