The end looks in sight for what has been a long road to Senate passage of a $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“The Senate is now finally on the precipice of passing major bipartisan infrastructure legislation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech on Monday. The New York Democrat added that the chamber has cleared a few remaining procedural hurdles and “put the bill on a glide path for passage tomorrow morning.”
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the top Republican negotiator on the infrastructure PAVE, -0.02% legislation, offered a similar timeline for passage during a CNBC interview on Monday.
“We’ve got a 4 a.m. tomorrow deadline when the debate will be over, and then we’ll probably vote at about 9 or 10,” Portman said.
“Based on the test votes in the last four or five days, it appears as though we’ll have about 18 or 20 Republicans joining most every Democrat to pass it,” Portman added. “So it’ll be a big bipartisan victory, and we’ll be able to move forward with something that has only been talked about here in Washington for decades, which is how to give our infrastructure some needed improvements.”
The infrastructure bill then would head to the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has promised to take it up only in conjunction with a separate $ 3.5 trillion spending package.
Senate Democrats on Monday released the text of a budget resolution that would allow them to pass that larger package focused on “human infrastructure,” climate change and other Democratic priorities.
Democratic-run Washington is aiming to take a two-step approach to big spending, with the $ 3.5 trillion package advancing in the Senate by a simple majority vote through a process known as budget reconciliation, after the chamber passes the $ 1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.