When is the Senate voting on the bipartisan infrastructure bill? Could it be passed this week?
After days of debate in the Senate over the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Sen. Schumer says the vote on the package could occur this week.
On Sunday, lawmakers unveiled the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which a bipartisan group of Senators and the White House have worked on over the last few weeks.
After a series of debates in the Senate last week, the bill has been finalized. All in all, the legislation has a price tag of over 1 trillion dollars and is over 2,500 pages.
The text of the finalized version was released on Sunday, and many of those who worked on it, are anxiously awaiting the Senate vote to see if the tense and lengthy negotiations will have been worthwhile.
When will the vote take place?
As of Monday morning, no vote on the bill has been put on the legislative calendar.
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has stated that he hopes to pass the bill as soon as this week before lawmakers head off for their summer recess.
Both Democrats and Republicans have campaigned on investing in and rebuilding America’s failing infrastructure for decades. With Democrats in power, many in the GOP worry that it could hurt their electoral chances if they were to vote against the package which holds widespread public support.
Who supports the bill?
To pass the Seante, the bill would need to receive at least sixty votes because of the filibuster. At this point, it seems that there are ten Republicans willing to vote with all Senate Democrats to pass the legislation.
When the bill was brought up for a procedural vote, the motion to proceed passed with 67 votes, showing the vast bipartisan support for the package.
Mitch McConnell, the former Senate leader, surprised many when he voted in the affirmative to begin debate over the bill last Wednesday. Sen. McConnell later stated that the bill is “guaranteed to be the kind of legislation that no member on either side of the aisle will think is perfect, but it's an important basic duty of government.” These comments come as former Presidnet Trump bashed those who had worked with Democrats on the bill, which many believed could ruin its chances of passing.
In response to Sen. McConnell's vote, Senator of Hawaii, Brian Schatz said that he “was a little surprised.” While happy with the choice McConnell and many of his other GOP colleagues made he is still skeptical, saying of McConnell that “His record is clear: He has great enthusiasm for killing Democratic legislation. If this proves to be the exception, that's fantastic."