Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) looks down the hall after speaking to reporters after the Senate Democrats’ weekly political lunch on July 20, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
WASHINGTON – An important procedural vote on the $ 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan failed to pass the entire Senate on Wednesday after Republicans agreed against an unfinished bill.
The vote failed at 49:51, and all Republicans opposed it. The measure, a placeholder for the later draft law, required 60 votes to clear a major procedural hurdle. In an evenly split Senate, it took the Democrats 10 GOP votes to move it forward.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., changed his vote to “No” to put the vote back.
After the vote, a bipartisan group of 22 senators working on the infrastructure deal issued a joint statement.
“We have made significant progress and we are close to reaching a final agreement. We will continue to work hard to make sure we get this important piece of legislation right – and we are optimistic that we will complete this historic bipartisan proposal to strengthen American infrastructure and be ready to move it forward ”and well-paying jobs in the days to come create “, so the group.
“We appreciate our colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the administration who are working with us to do this for the American people.”
The result of Wednesday’s vote was clear – the Republicans had made no secret of voting against.
“We’re just not ready,” said Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday morning.
Instead, Republicans had asked Schumer to postpone the vote to Monday to give the bipartisan group more time to reach an agreement.
But Schumer declined calls that delayed the vote. “I made it very clear what this vote is,” said Schumer on Wednesday morning, calling it “the first step in the legislative process”.
“This vote is not a deadline for all of the final details to be worked out,” he said.
The failure of efforts on Wednesday to move the bill forward is only a minor setback for the Führer: Schumer can bring the bill back to the vote at any time.
Schumer and other Democratic leaders, with the support of President Joe Biden, are trying to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill along with a $ 3.5 trillion budget resolution that is unlikely to receive Republican support.
The bipartisan plan, which would fund a nationwide upgrade of physical infrastructure systems like bridges and waterways, would include new expenditures of $ 579 billion above the congressional base and cost $ 1.2 trillion over eight years.
The budget decision, meanwhile, would pour federal funds into a number of issues, including climate change and health care.
