The Senate is gearing up Tuesday to pass the $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan, with a growing coalition of Democrats and Republicans pushing the first phase of President Joe Biden's rebuilding agenda.
The vote will be around 11 a.m. ET and the bill will go to the House of Representatives.
Following this vote, the Senate will immediately launch votes on Biden's next package, the $ 3.5 billion social plan with a path to citizenship for millions of migrants, free education for 3- and 4-year-olds, or dental and optical coverage in Medicare. , among other measures.
The debate on these measures will likely continue into the fall.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declared Monday that once the House of Representatives passes the bipartisan infrastructure package this week, they
will "act immediately"
to pass a budget resolution that will allow his party to draft a bill. on the social plan.
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Democrats are using the budget reconciliation process to pass the package with a simple majority of votes in the Senate, circumventing filibustering - a parliamentary objection tactic that has led to the need to get 60 votes to pass some laws in the Senate. .
Some 70 senators appear willing to approve the bipartisan package.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, his party's top negotiator on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, works from his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021.AP Photo / J.
Scott applewhite
A sizable number of business, agricultural and labor groups support the leglation, which proposes nearly $ 550 billion in new spending: roads, bridges, broadband Internet, water pipes, and other public works systems that cities and states target. they often cannot pay for themselves.
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"It's been a different process," said Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio and the top Republican negotiator for the group of 10 senators who drafted the package.
Portman, budget director during the administration of former President George W. Bush, who served between 2001 and 2009, explained that for years these investments have been talked about, but they never materialize.
"We will do well for the American people," he said.
The top Democratic negotiator, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, said she was trying to follow the example of her compatriot John McCain of Arizona to
"reach bipartisan agreements that try to unite the country
.
"
Still, not all senators agree.
Despite the momentum, the action came to a halt over the weekend when Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican and Trump ally, refused to speed up the process.
Other Republican senators opposed the size, scope and funding of the package, particularly concerned after the Congressional Budget Office warned it would add $ 256 billion to deficits this decade.
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Republicans Jerry Moran of Kansas and Todd Young, senators from Indiana, had been part of the initial negotiations to shape the package, but eventually announced that they could not support it.
Democrats in the Senate present the 'Human Infrastructure' plan, which would benefit migrants
Aug. 9, 202102: 06
Rather than pressure lawmakers, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has stayed behind the scenes for much of the negotiations.
He has repeatedly cast his own votes to allow the bill to move forward, calling it a compromise.
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Trump called Hagerty, who was his ambassador to Japan, on Sunday, and the senator advocated taking more time for debate and amendments, in part because he wants to slow the march toward Biden's second phase, the 3.5 billion bill. dollars that Republicans totally oppose.
Unlike this legislation, which would be paid for at higher tax rates for corporations and the wealthy, the bipartisan package will be financed by reusing other money and with other spending cuts and revenue streams.
Senators have spent the past week processing nearly two dozen amendments to the 2,700-page package, but so far none have changed substantially.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider both of Biden's infrastructure packages when he returns from recess in September.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the two bills will be considered together, but on Monday, a bipartisan group of centrist lawmakers urged her to quickly push through the smaller plan, prompting concerns about the biggest bill, in a sign of complicated politics ahead.
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"This once-in-a-century investment deserves its own consideration," wrote Democrats Josh Gottheimer, Rep. Of New Jersey, and Jared Golden, of Maine, and other lawmakers in a letter obtained by The Associated Press news agency.
"We cannot afford unnecessary delays"
