Despite budget worries, the vote came after months of talks, indicating that both parties were eager for the long-awaited spending plan.
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| [US Senate] |
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, completing a key component of President Biden's plan by rebuilding the nation's aging roads and bridges and funding new climate resilience and broadband programs.
The bill would be the greatest federal investment in infrastructure projects in over a decade, affecting almost every aspect of the American economy and strengthening the country's response to global warming.
It would invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the repair and replacement of old public works projects, as well as offer unprecedented money for the upgrading of the nation's electricity system and programs to better manage climate threats.
The vote was unusually nonpartisan, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, and 18 other Republicans voting yes, despite former President Donald Trump's increasingly strident attempts to torpedo it.
However, the bill now faces a potentially bumpy and time-consuming path in the House, where Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, and the nearly 100-member Progressive Caucus have said they will not vote on it unless and until the Senate passes a separate, even more ambitious $3.5 trillion social policy bill this fall.
The passage of the infrastructure bill, which was painstakingly crafted by a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic senators in consultation with White House officials, vindicates Biden's belief that a bipartisan compromise could be reached on a long-standing issue shared by both parties — even in the midst of deep political division. Despite Republican resistance, Democrats will immediately take up a second social policy package to complete the balance of their spending goals.
Democrats and Mr. Biden, who had originally proposed a $2.3 trillion infrastructure package, had to make significant compromises to reach an agreement. The money for lead pipe replacement, transportation, and sustainable energy initiatives, among other things, is considerably less than they had hoped for. However, the outcome was the approval of a critical component of the president's $4 trillion economic program.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona and a major negotiator, stated before the bill's approval, "This is what it looks like when elected leaders take a step toward mending our country's differences rather than fueling those exact divisions."
“It will be a lasting bipartisan achievement to help the people we represent — it will improve the lives of all Americans,” Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, promised. The bill would direct $550 billion in new federal spending toward infrastructure projects across the country, as well as renew and revamp existing programs set to expire at the end of September. It would offer $65 billion to extend high-speed internet access, $110 billion to support roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects, $25 billion to fund airports, and the highest money for Amtrak since the passenger rail service began in 1971.
Analysts predicted that the government would have to borrow extensively to cover such costs. The Congressional Budget Office warned on Thursday that the measure would add $256 billion to the deficit over ten years, contradicting the authors' assertions that it would be completely funded.
That represents nearly half of the bill's new spending, which includes a patchwork of revenue-raising measures such as repurposing unspent pandemic relief funds, tightening cryptocurrency regulation, and delaying the implementation of a Trump-era rule that would change how drug companies can offer discounts to health plans for Medicare patients.
Senators had been warned that they were employing budgetary tricks to hide the actual cost of their deal, and the Congressional Budget Office's assessment seemed to corroborate that assumption, causing one Republican, Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, to derail a bipartisan effort to hasten its ratification.
Mr. Hagerty claimed in a speech on Saturday that “there is absolutely no rationale for speeding this process and seeking to avoid examination of the bill, other than the Democrats' entirely artificial, self-imposed, and politically-driven timeline.”
Senators from both parties shrugged off the deficit numbers after days of voting on revisions to the measure, which is more than 2,000 pages long, and came together to push through a package that Republicans and Democrats have long championed.
Over late-night lunches, virtual meetings, and phone conversations, senators and top White House officials debated how to organize and fund the bill for weeks. Even when the committee proudly unveiled a blueprint in June, it took a month to turn that outline into law. The initiative looked to be on the verge of collapsing along the road, when it failed a Senate test vote and former President Donald J. Trump sniped at it from the sidelines, attempting to persuade Republicans that backing it would come at a high political cost.
The topic of how to pay for their proposal was particularly perplexing to negotiators. Democrats ruled out boosting user fees for drivers, while Republicans stated they would not support any legislation that boosted taxes and opposed a plan to tighten up I.R.S. enforcement against tax cheaters. The Congressional Budget Office's assessment of the deficit offered many Republicans another cause to oppose the bill.
In order to solve a multibillion-dollar infrastructure backlog, lawmakers from both parties crammed the bill with a variety of objectives and projects, including the repair of an Alaskan highway, a prohibition on smoking on Amtrak, and $1 billion for Great Lakes restoration. The bill also contains $24 million for San Francisco Bay restoration, $106 million for Long Island Sound restoration, and $238 million for Chesapeake Bay restoration.
The law also contains significant policy changes. It's a tacit, bipartisan admission that the country is unprepared for a deteriorating environment. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be spent in initiatives to better safeguard houses from natural disasters, relocate vulnerable people out of harm's way, and promote innovative climate change solutions.
It also includes $73 billion to upgrade the country's electrical infrastructure to accommodate more renewable energy, $7.5 billion to build electric vehicle charging stations, $17.5 billion for clean buses and ferries, and $15 billion to replace lead pipes.
Although not as much as Mr. Biden had wanted, the deal directs crucial resources to neglected regions. It would allocate $1 billion over five years — slightly more than half of which would come from new federal funding — to a program to help reconnect communities split apart by highway construction, as well as millions of dollars to help tribal and Alaska Native communities gain access to running water.
It also includes funds to rehabilitate lakes around the country, $66 billion in additional Amtrak financing, and more support for programs that help pedestrians commute safely.
It also establishes a $350 million pilot program for programs that decrease vehicle-wildlife accidents.
[This article first appear on New York Times. © Emily Cochrane/NYT]