At long last, a bipartisan group of Senators has agreed on an infrastructure bill that includes $550 billion in new spending. The legislation, which has been the subject of intense negotiation for months, could be up for Senate vote as early as Wednesday evening. The vote would advance the bill for consideration.
“We now have an agreement on the major issues,” Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead GOP negotiator, said on Wednesday. “We are prepared to move forward.” Portman announced the deal on Wednesday outside of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office (R-KY). Portman said the minority leader “all along has been encouraging our efforts.”
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who represented Democrats in the negotiations, said she spoke with President Joe Biden and is “very excited” to have a deal.
Axios reports that the deal includes $65 billion for broadband and $47 billion for flooding and coastal resiliency. According to Punchbowl News, $110 billion is earmarked for roads. One source of funding will be a crackdown on unemployment insurance fraud.
The New York Times adds, “While details were not immediately available, the bill under discussion would pump the largest infusion of federal money in more than a decade into the nation’s aging public works system.”
Former President Donald Trump has tried to sabotage the bill from his New Jersey home, but, as Politico reports, it’s mostly seen as Trump airing personals grievances as opposed to complaints about specific legislation. And his critique has been met by shrugs in Washington.
“I’ve read the statements,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “But it’s a little short on specificity.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio.) announced that there was an agreement on the “major issues,” after days long back and forth between top Republicans and the White House. A cloture vote was expected in the evening.
“I don’t think there’s a lot there,” a senior GOP aide said of Trump’s attempts at undermining the deal. “It’s not reverberating here. I don’t think Rob Portman sees this and goes, ‘Oh no, I have to give up.’”