Enlarge image
Joe Biden: a hard-won achievement
Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP
The US House of Representatives approved Joe Biden's investment package.
The US President's billion dollar package is considered one of the core domestic political projects of his administration.
However, only a slim majority of Democrats voted in favor of investing in social and climate protection - and the vote of the second Chamber of Congress, the US Senate, is still pending.
Nevertheless, the decision marks the end of a game: only last night the Republican Kevin McCarthy, minority leader in the House of Representatives, prevented a vote by talking for hours (filibuster).
As a result, the vote was postponed to Friday.
Conflicts within your own ranks too
But there had also been disputes about the project in their own ranks.
Originally, Biden had targeted a $ 3.5 trillion social and climate investment package.
Moderate Democrats, however, resisted such high spending and forced the president to abandon parts of his plans during the negotiations.
He eventually cut the package in half to $ 1.75 trillion.
However, it is still not certain that the package will be passed - the Senate, too, still has to give its approval.
There the Democrats only have a wafer-thin majority and cannot allow themselves a single deviator from within their own ranks.
However, individual Democratic senators have indicated that there is still a need for discussion, above all Joe Manchin from West Virginia.
Among other things, the package envisages reducing the - up to now sometimes extremely high - costs of childcare for many families in the country and partly taking over them entirely by the state, relieving families of taxation and expanding health services.
More than $ 500 billion has also been earmarked for the fight against the climate crisis, including investments in renewable energies and tax incentives for the purchase of electric cars.
Just two weeks ago, Congress passed another investment package from the President aimed at modernizing the country's infrastructure.
jlk / dpa
