WASHINGTON (CN) — After weeks of negotiations and a back and forth to rival Olympian-level table tennis, the Senate finally came together Wednesday, voting 67-32 to start formal debate on a sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.
Though final text of the legislation — which also features $550 billion in new spending — will be released later, the topline figures emerged as lawmakers on Capitol Hill wrapped up the latest round of talks.
For now, the infrastructure package is expected to feature $110 billion for roads, including a new dedicated grant program to states who need to repair and replace bridges. $65 billion is set aside for broadband access enhancements throughout the nation with a focus on rural areas and $47 billion is flagged for flooding and coastal resiliency efforts in light of the worsening effects of climate change.
Waterways and ports would receive $17.3 billion, meaning infusions of cash would start flowing to the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Department if this latest iteration of the bill makes it through.
Public transit systems, long at a repair backlog would receive $39.2 billion, an investment that a summary of the infrastructure framework states would tackle 24,000 buses, 5,000 rail cars, 200 stations, thousands of miles of track, signal and power systems.
Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia on Wednesday afternoon lauded a proposed broadband feature in the bill that includes a $30 monthly benefit for low income individuals to purchase internet and a rule requiring internet service providers to offer low cost service options.
Senator Bob Portman, a Republican of Ohio, led talks for the GOP and met with counselor to President Joe Biden, Steve Richetti, for several hours late Tuesday to hash out the latest terms that brought legislators to the floor Wednesday night.
Kyrsten Sinema, the senator for Arizona, has been the point person in talks with the White House for Democrats.
Ahead of the vote Wednesday, Portman was optimistic about proceedings saying that the Senate was finally ready for “healthy debate.”
Wednesday’s vote was the second time in a week that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, pushed the body to move on the contentious infrastructure bill. Schumer conceded that his attempt to force debate the first time was doomed because it lacked the votes for passage. But he sallied forth anyway, he said, because he deemed the maneuver necessary to kickstart lawmakers into action.
Though lawmakers agreed to open debate Wednesday, a summary detailing how new spending dollars would be paid for looks like a laundry list of hurdles yet to come. Lawmakers have proposed paying for the $550 billion in new spending through repurposing pandemic relief funds to the tune of $205 billion. Lawmakers also want to claw back benefits paid out fraudulently from enhanced federal unemployment supplements.
$49 billion could be paid for by delaying Medicare Part D rebates while $28 billion could be drawn off by applying “reporting requirements” on cryptocurrency.
Even if the Senate can eke out a vote on infrastructure, trouble is still brewing over a related $3.5 trillion spending package that is the lynchpin of the Biden administration’s ambitious policy agenda. That package would fund a wide array of services spanning education, health care and childcare initiatives like universal pre-K or tuition for community college.
Democrats want to pass that bill without Republicans since the GOP has openly said it will not vote in favor of the measure due to concerns over rising inflation.
But to overcome Republicans and get the White House’s agenda in play, most Democrats insist they must invoke a process known as budget reconciliation.
That is a tough sell even among fellow party members. Senator Synema on Wednesday said she would not join fellow Democrats to support the $3.5 trillion package but offered a sparsely-worded commitment to “work in good faith to develop this legislation.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been noncommittal in her own right, saying for weeks she would not consider the infrastructure bill from the Senate until the reconciliation bill cleared.
All of this however, fails to preclude the not-so-small matter of impending procedural hurdles looming right now.
Though Democrats gained the votes Wednesday night to open debate, the Senate soon proceeds to amendments, setting up what is widely expected to be a protracted fight over pay-fors and other items.
Schumer said Wednesday he expects some work on the bill could continue through the weekend.
But even if lawmakers manage to get to the amendment round, they will have to vote again to end the debate they struggled to open. Amendments could shift the goalposts once more and that means legislators could find themselves right back on the floor in a week where Democrats, holding a narrow majority, will be on the hunt again for Republicans to join them to overcome any wall of opposition.
For its part, the White House was enthusiastic on Wednesday. President Joe Biden in a statement thanked lawmakers profusely for striking the initial bargain and added: “This deal makes key investments to put people to work all across the country — in cities, small towns, rural communities, and across our coastlines and plains.”
Congress is currently up against multiple deadlines as they spend the next week hashing out the legislation. Congressional recess is slated to start in August and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the House of Representatives last Friday that the U.S. is on the verge of defaulting on all of its financial obligations unless it can agree to suspend or increase the nation’s debt limit by Aug. 1.
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