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Republican negotiators say they need more details before moving forward.
Senate Democrats lost a key test vote on Wednesday to allow a bipartisan infrastructure deal to move forward – after Republicans involved in the talks said they needed more time to finalize details before helping Democrats to reach the 60 Senate vote threshold to initiate debate on the bill.
As Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s efforts failed – inflicting him and President Joe Biden at least a temporary political loss on a top priority – the White House earlier Wednesday, the president was “overwhelmingly supportive of. To Schumer’s strategy to restart negotiations over the measure that would spend $ 1.2 trillion on “traditional infrastructure.”
The partisan defeat, by a 49-51 vote, belied the committee behind the scenes as a bipartisan group of 11 senators work feverishly behind the scenes to finalize the terms of their funding plan for major public works projects, bridges and highways to public transport and broadband.
“This vote is not a deadline to sort out all the final details. It is not an attempt to block anyone,” Schumer said Wednesday morning in the Senate ahead of the post-showdown. midday.
“According to the negotiators, stimulated by this vote this afternoon, they are about to finalize their product,” he said. “Even Republicans agreed the deadline got them moving faster. We all want the same thing here – to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But to complete the bill, we have to start first. “
Top Republican negotiators from the bipartisan group of senators who tried to secure the deal said they believed they could finalize it by Monday.
“We are making tremendous progress, and I hope the Majority Leader reconsiders and delays the vote until Monday. This is not a big request from him,” GOP Senator Susan Collins told reporters. Maine Monday morning.
The group gathered around Mexican food and wine behind closed doors for more than two hours late Tuesday night, but left without settling all their differences on how to pay for the package.
Schumer, Republicans say, is well aware of their position that waiting until next week to hold a vote would increase the chances of success.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that 10 Republicans signed a letter to Schumer indicating that they are ready to support passage of the bill on Monday.
He said he understood that “Chief Schumer wanted to know if there were ten Republicans in favor of passing the bill, and we indicated, yes, there are ten. Probably more.”
Negotiators said on Tuesday that there were about six issues left with the bipartisan bill, the thorniest of which is how to structure spending on transit systems.
At the same time, the main lawmaker expects the legislation to be finalized by Monday, and that includes the non-partisan analyzes from various agencies that break down all the funding options, the amount of revenue that would be generated and a final price.
Republicans, in particular, will seek to show that the $ 579 billion in new spending is fully paid.
As failure seemed certain, Schumer flipped his vote on the losing side at the last minute, which allowed him, as majority leader, under Senate rules, to recall the vote for reconsideration.
Wednesday’s vote must start debate on a fictitious bill as there is no final bill from the negotiators. It would serve as a placeholder if the negotiators reached a final deal.
The measure is separate from a much larger bill that Biden and Democrats are calling for, which would spend $ 3.5 trillion on so-called “human infrastructure” such as child care.
Democrats plan to get this through the Senate without a Republican vote, using a budget tool called “reconciliation.”
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