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Washington – The Senate voted approval of approximately $ 1 trillion bill to revamp the country’s infrastructure on Tuesday, offering a bipartisan breakthrough on legislation that includes key parts of President Biden’s national agenda.
The final vote was 69 to 30, with 19 Republicans joining the 50 Democrats to vote for the passage. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among Republicans who voted yes. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the final vote and said it was “a very good day” before entering the chamber.
The legislation, known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was crafted after months of talks between a bipartisan group of senators and the White House that have at times appeared on the verge of collapse.
“It has been a long and winding road, but we persisted and now we have arrived,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the senators’ vote. “There were many newspapers in our path, detours along the way, but the American people will now see the largest infusion of infrastructure funding in decades.”
The bill, which is now heading to the House, prioritizes funding to improve the country’s roads, bridges, highways, water and broadband infrastructure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the lower house would not pass the bipartisan bill until the Senate passed a separate decision. $ 3.5 trillion budget which includes provisions to tackle climate change and increase national spending on health care, childcare and more.
House progressives have threatened to withhold support for the bipartisan measure unless the Senate approves the $ 3.5 trillion package, which could take months to finalize. The Senate immediately voted to advance the budget resolution that paves the way for a larger bill, kicking off a “vote-a-rama” marathon on amendments that could extend into the night.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, GOP Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, one of the key negotiators, touted the collaborative process behind the development of the infrastructure bill, which he said showed bipartisanship still exists in the Senate.
“To me, not only does this investment make sense, but more importantly, what we’re doing here today also demonstrates to the American people that we can act together on a bipartisan basis and do something,” said Portman. “We can do great things on a bipartisan basis if we put our minds to it.”
The bipartisan bill passed Tuesday would inject $ 550 billion in new federal spending over five years to improve the country’s infrastructure. The legislation spends $ 66 billion on rail transportation and safety, $ 55 billion on water infrastructure and $ 65 billion on increasing and improving broadband connections. In addition, the legislation provides $ 7.5 billion for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, which is far less than what Mr Biden was originally looking for. The bill would allocate $ 15 billion to replace lead pipes, which is also lower than the $ 45 billion originally requested by Mr Biden.
The country’s infrastructure upgrades will be funded through various measures, including the reallocation of $ 200 billion that was allocated by Congress for previous relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation estimates that about $ 53 billion will be available from states that have canceled their enhanced federal unemployment insurance benefits. Additionally, the measure also requires cryptocurrency “brokers” to report their transactions to the IRS.
Over the past few days, disagreements have emerged over who would be defined as a cryptocurrency “broker”, and Republican Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming on Monday sought unanimous consent to change the law to restrict who should report transactions. But the senators opposed it and the amendment did not receive a vote.
The Joint Committee on Taxation released its analysis of the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week and estimated the bill would generate $ 51 billion in revenue over 10 years. the Congress Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the legislation would add $ 256 billion to the deficit over a 10-year period, given the increased spending.
CBO’s analysis reinforced concerns from some conservatives that the bill would not be fully paid. Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana said last Thursday in a statement that CBO scores showed the provisions to pay for the legislation are “either wrong or insufficient,” and he urged Republicans not to support a ” bloated debt bomb parading like an infrastructure deal. However, Braun was not among Republicans who had said they would support the bill.
Portman and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both key negotiators for the bipartisan infrastructure group, said in a joint statement last week that not all sources of funding are factored into the CBO’s model and that their legislation provides for $ 519 billion in compensation.
“The new spending planned by the bill is offset by a combination of new income and savings, some of which is reflected in the official CBO score and others in other savings and additional income identified in the estimates,” because the CBO is limited in what it can include in its official score, ”they said in the joint statement.
The Senate considered 22 amendments, including 13 proposed by Republicans. But lawmakers failed to agree on additional amendment votes as of last Thursday to complete the process earlier, with Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee opposed, citing the CBO’s score.
The bipartisan bill represents the first part of a two-part process, the second being the larger bill with a price tag of $ 3.5 trillion. This package can only be passed with the support of Democrats using a process known as fiscal reconciliation. The 50 Democrats must remain united for the measure to pass because no Republican is supposed to support it.
The $ 3.5 trillion budget resolution is a model for Mr. Biden’s broader national economic agenda, and includes funds to expand medicare and child care and tackle climate change. In addition, the budget resolution also directs the Senate Judiciary Committee to work on developing a solution for “legal permanent status for skilled immigrants”.
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