Schumer defends tight deadline for infrastructure as GOP threatens to block key vote

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday rejected calls from Republicans to slow down the process of moving a bipartisan infrastructure plan to his chamber.

Instead, the New York Democrat put more pressure on senators to come to a final deal on the legislation, and said he had no intention of delaying Wednesday’s vote. to continue the debate on the plan.

Schumer argued that Wednesday’s procedural vote to advance a House transport bill that will be part of the ultimate infrastructure package was not a deadline to complete the toughest pieces of legislation, but simply a starting point to begin formally discussing what the bill should contain.

“This is not a cynical ploy. This is not a fish or cut bait moment. This is not an attempt to block anyone,” Schumer said Tuesday morning in the Senate.

“It is only a signal that the Senate is ready to start the process – which the Senate has regularly done on other bipartisan bills this year,” said the majority leader.

Once the fictitious bill is approved, Schumer said, he would insert bipartisan infrastructure language into it on Thursday if a deal had been reached by then.

If a deal is not reached by Thursday, but the fictitious bill ends up exceeding the 60 vote threshold, Schumer said he would insert wording from several smaller bills that have already been approved. either by Senate committees or by the Senate as a whole: bill, a highway bill, a railway and public transport bill and an energy bill.

Schumer tabled the original motion to proceed with the House bill on Monday evening, he said, with the intention of exchanging the text of the Senate infrastructure legislation once it is drafted.

Wednesday’s vote will simply kick off a debate that Schumer says could take several more weeks – “No more, no less.”

“We’ve waited a month. It’s time to move on,” he said, referring to President Joe Biden’s June 24 White House announcement that the group is closely two dozen bipartisan senators had struck a deal.

Schumer needs at least 10 Republican votes to pass the motion on Wednesday. If that vote fails, Republicans “would deny the Senate the opportunity to consider the bipartisan amendment,” Schumer said.

“In order to complete the bill, we must first agree to start,” he said.

Yet even as Schumer downplayed the importance of Wednesday’s vote, Republican opposition to moving the bill forward has hardened in recent days.

As soon as news of Schumer’s plan emerged, Republicans negotiating the infrastructure package screamed scandal and demanded more time to complete the network of funding sources in order to pay for a $ 579 billion project in new investment. in infrastructure.

“We cannot support the close for something we have not yet accomplished,” said Ohio Senator Rob Portman, the Republican chief negotiator, on Monday evening. “It is absurd to go ahead with a vote on something that is not yet formulated.”

“It makes no sense to try to rush into a closing vote,” Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

“If the majority leader would just agree to postpone the vote until the very beginning of next week, to make it the first vote on Monday, then I think we might have some language to show our colleagues and be able to move on. forward, ”Collins said.

The sticking points over the bill’s “pay-for” bills came as a non-partisan political organization warned that the proposed budget resolution, which Democrats hope they can pass by the Senate in a line vote party, could actually cost much more than the $ 3.5 trillion announced. .

The nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, citing a backgrounder on the budget proposal, said on Monday that its actual cost could exceed $ 5,000 billion over a decade.

Some Republicans accuse Schumer of forcing a vote on Wednesday that he knows will fail, in order to see it as proof that Republicans are only stalling on the infrastructure bill and will never agree to pass it .

Schumer “wants this vote to fail because he really wants to go the partisan route,” Republican Senator from Texas John Cornyn said in the Senate on Tuesday.

Cornyn predicted that once the infrastructure bill failed, Democrats would use it as an opening to pass a white list of progressive agenda items in a budget bill on a straight-line vote .

Meanwhile, some Democrats have also criticized the infrastructure talks.

“Crashing everything is probably the best thing,” Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. Said on a private call with other Democrats on Monday, three sources on the call told Politico.

A spokesperson for DeFazio did not immediately comment on the report.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.