$1 Trillion Infrastructure Deal Scales Senate
Hurdle With Bipartisan Vote
The vote was a breakthrough after weeks of wrangling
among White House officials and senators in both parties, clearing the way for
action on a top priority for President Biden.
By Emily
Cochrane and Jim Tankersley
July 28,
2021
WASHINGTON
— The Senate voted on Wednesday to take up a $1 trillion bipartisan
infrastructure bill that would make far-reaching investments in the nation’s
public works system, as Republicans joined Democrats in clearing the way for
action on a crucial piece of President Biden’s agenda.
The
67-to-32 vote, which included 17 Republicans in favor, came just hours after
centrist senators in both parties and the White House reached a long-sought
compromise on the bill, which would provide about $550 billion in new federal
money for roads, bridges, rail, transit, water and other physical
infrastructure programs.
Among those
in support of moving forward was Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
Republican leader and a longtime foil of major legislation pushed by Democratic
presidents. Mr. McConnell’s backing signaled that his party was — at least for
now — open to teaming with Democrats to enact the plan.
The deal
still faces several obstacles to becoming law, including being turned into
formal legislative text and clearing final votes in the closely divided Senate
and House. But the vote was a victory for a president who has long promised to
break through the partisan gridlock gripping Congress and accomplish big things
supported by members of both political parties.
If enacted,
the measure would be the largest infusion of federal money into the public
works system in more than a decade.
The
compromise, which was still being written on Wednesday, includes $110 billion
for roads, bridges and major projects; $66 billion for passenger and freight
rail; $39 billion for public transit; $65 billion for broadband; $17 billion
for ports and waterways; and $46 billion to help states and cities prepare for
droughts, wildfires, flooding and other consequences of climate change,
according to a White House official who detailed it on the condition of
anonymity.
In a
lengthy statement, Mr. Biden hailed the deal as “the most significant long-term
investment in our infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century.”
He also
framed it as vindication of his belief in bipartisanship.
“Neither
side got everything they wanted in this deal,” Mr. Biden said. “But that’s what
it means to compromise and forge consensus — the heart of democracy. As the
deal goes to the entire Senate, there is still plenty of work ahead to bring
this home. There will be disagreements to resolve and more compromise to forge
along the way.”
That was
evident on Wednesday even as the president and senators in both parties cheered
their agreement. In negotiating it, Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders were
forced to agree to concessions, accepting less new federal money for public
transit and clean energy projects than they had wanted, including for some
electric vehicle charging stations, and abandoning their push for additional
funding for tax enforcement at the I.R.S. (A senior Democratic aide noted that
Democrats secured an expansion of existing transit and highway programs
compared with 2015, the last time such legislation was passed.)
The changes
— and the omission of some of their highest priorities — rankled progressives
in both chambers, with some threatening to oppose the bill unless it was
modified.
“From what
we have heard, having seen no text, this bill is going to be status quo, 1950s
policy with a little tiny add-on,” said Representative Peter A. DeFazio of
Oregon, a Democrat and the chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee.
“If it’s
what I think it is,” he added, “I will be opposed.”
Still, the
bipartisan compromise was a crucial component of Mr. Biden’s $4 trillion
economic agenda, which Democrats plan to pair with a $3.5 trillion budget
blueprint that would provide additional spending for climate, health care and
education, to be muscled through Congress over Republican objections.
The vote to
move forward with the infrastructure bill came after weeks of haggling by a
bipartisan group of senators and White House officials to translate an outline
they agreed on late last month into legislation. Just last week, Senate
Republicans had unanimously blocked consideration of the plan, saying there
were too many unresolved disputes. But by Wednesday, after several days of
frenzied talks and late-night phone calls and texts among senators and White
House officials, the negotiators announced they were ready to proceed.
“We look
forward to moving ahead, and having the opportunity to have a healthy debate
here in the chamber regarding an incredibly important project for the American
people,” said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and a lead negotiator.
Many of the
bill’s spending provisions remain unchanged from the original agreement. But it
appeared that it pared spending in a few areas, including reducing money for
public transit to $39 billion from $49 billion, and eliminating a $20 billion
“infrastructure bank” that was meant to catalyze private investment in large
projects. Negotiators were unable to agree on the structure of the bank and
terms of its financing authority, so they removed it altogether.
The loss of
the infrastructure bank appeared to cut in half the funding for electric
vehicle charging stations that administration officials had said was included
in the original agreement, jeopardizing Mr. Biden’s promise to create a network
of 500,000 charging stations nationwide.
The new
agreement also included significant changes to how the infrastructure spending
will be paid for, after Republicans resisted supporting a pillar of the
original framework: increased revenues from an I.R.S. crackdown on tax cheats,
which was to have supplied nearly one-fifth of the funding for the plan.
In place of
those lost revenues, negotiators agreed to repurpose more than $250 billion
from previous pandemic aid legislation, including $50 billion from expanded
unemployment benefits that have been canceled prematurely this summer by two
dozen Republican governors, according to a fact sheet reviewed by The New York
Times. That is more than double the repurposed money in the original deal.
The new
agreement would save $50 billion by delaying a Medicare rebate rule passed
under President Donald J. Trump and raise nearly $30 billion by applying tax
information reporting requirements to cryptocurrency. It also proposes to
recoup $50 billion in fraudulently paid unemployment benefits during the
pandemic.
Fiscal
hawks were quick to dismiss some of those financing mechanisms as overly
optimistic or accounting gimmicks, and warned that the agreement would add to
the federal budget deficit over time. But business groups and some moderates in
Washington quickly praised the deal.
Jack
Howard, the senior vice president for government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, which has worked for months to broker a bipartisan deal that does not
include a corporate tax increase, said the spending in the agreement “will
provide enormous benefits for the American people and the economy.”
“Our nation
has been waiting for infrastructure modernization for over a decade,” he said,
“and this is a critical step in the process.”
During a
lunch on Wednesday, the Republicans who spearheaded the deal passed out binders
containing a summary of what could be a 1,000-page bill. The group of 10 core
negotiators ultimately held a celebratory news conference where they thanked
their colleagues in both parties for their support.
“It’s not
perfect but it’s, I think, in a good place,” said Senator Thom Tillis,
Republican of North Carolina, who voted in favor of taking up the bill.
After the
vote Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, expressed
optimism that the Senate would be able to pass not just the bipartisan
infrastructure package, but the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint needed to unlock
the far more expansive reconciliation package to carry the remainder of Mr.
Biden’s agenda.
“My goal
remains to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution
during this work period — both,” Mr. Schumer said, warning of “long nights” and
weekend sessions. “We are going to get the job done, and we are on track.”
Democrats
still must maneuver the bill through the evenly divided Senate, maintaining the
support of all 50 Democrats and independents and at least 10 Republicans. That
could take at least a week, particularly if Republicans opposed to it opt to
slow the process. Should the measure clear the Senate, it would also have to
pass the House, where some liberal Democrats have balked at the emerging
details.
But
Republicans who negotiated the deal urged their colleagues to support a measure
they said would provide badly needed funding for infrastructure projects across
the country.
“I am
amazed that there are some who oppose this, just because they think that if you
ever get anything done somehow it’s a sign of weakness,” said Senator Bill
Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana.
Speaker
Nancy Pelosi of California has repeatedly said she will not take up the
bipartisan infrastructure bill in the House until the far more ambitious $3.5
trillion budget reconciliation bill passes the Senate.
Senator
Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the lead Democratic negotiator of the infrastructure
deal and a key moderate vote, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that she
did not support a plan that costly, though she would not seek to block it.
Those comments prompted multiple liberals in the House to threaten to reject
the bipartisan agreement she helped negotiate, underscoring the fragility of
the compromise.
“Good luck
tanking your own party’s investment on childcare, climate action, and
infrastructure while presuming you’ll survive a 3 vote House margin,”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, wrote in a
tweet. “Especially after choosing to exclude members of color from negotiations
and calling that a ‘bipartisan accomplishment.’”
Reporting
was contributed by Nicholas Fandos, Coral Davenport, Catie Edmondson and Lisa
Friedman.
Emily
Cochrane is a reporter in the Washington bureau, covering Congress. She was
raised in Miami and graduated from the University of Florida. @ESCochrane
Jim
Tankersley is a White House correspondent with a focus on economic policy. He
has written for more than a decade in Washington about the decline of
opportunity for American workers, and is the author of "The Riches of This
Land: The Untold, True Story of America's Middle Class." @jimtankersley
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