USA: House of Representatives postpones vote on infrastructure law

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US President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi: "Nobody got everything they wanted, not even me"

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NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP

The legislative package, with which roads, bridges and other transport and energy networks are to be modernized in the USA, comprises 2,700 pages.

It was one of the central inaugural promises made by US President Joe Biden.

The vote on the law in the House of Representatives has now been postponed.

According to House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, some Democrats would have insisted not to vote if they couldn't also vote on a separate $ 1.75 trillion social and climate package.

House of Representatives calls for prior agreement on social package

"The good news is that most MPs who were not ready to vote yes today have agreed to support the infrastructure bill," Pelosi said in a statement to her Democratic counterparts. Dozens of House Democrats opposed a quick vote on the $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill pending an agreement on a major welfare bill, its chairman said Thursday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government was confident that the infrastructure bill and $ 1.75 trillion package on social spending and tackling climate change would soon be passed by Congress. US President Joe Biden had presented a plan for climate action, preschool and other social initiatives on Thursday, which he said united the Democrats, but was rejected by some members of his party.

Under pressure from parts of his party, Biden has cut the climate and social package dramatically.

The budget is now 1.75 trillion US dollars (1.5 trillion euros).

Originally, Biden had targeted a package that was twice that size, valued at $ 3.5 trillion.

Moderate Democrats, however, had resisted such high spending and, in months of negotiations, forced the president to abandon parts of his plans.

»This is how compromises are«

Biden also originally estimated the expenditure for the infrastructure to be higher.

During the negotiations in the Senate, the package shrank to about half the volume originally planned by the administration of US President Joe Biden.

Around 550 billion dollars in new investments in infrastructure are planned over the next few years.

In total - including funds already budgeted - the package has a volume of around one trillion dollars.

Biden admitted on Thursday that the plans are not going as far as he and many in his Democratic Party wanted.

"Nobody got everything they wanted, including me," said the President.

"But that's how compromises are."

muk / Reuters