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The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 69-30 to approve a bipartisan infrastructure bill, in a move that sends the $1 trillion measure over to the House of Representatives for its approval.
The bill, known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, calls for $550 billion in new public-works spending above what already was expected in future federal investments.
That includes $110 billion for roads, bridges and other projects, as well as $66 billion for rail, $65 billion for broadband internet and $55 billion for water systems. Sources of funding for the measure include $205 billion from existing COVID-19 relief funds and an estimated $28 billion from new tax-reporting requirements on cryptocurrencies.
Related: Infrastructure bill looks set to pass Senate without changes sought by crypto advocates
“It’s been a long and winding road, but we have persisted, and now we have arrived,” said Senate Majority Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, shortly before the chamber’s vote. “There were many logs in our path, detours along the way, but the American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades.”
Analysts in recent weeks have been expecting that the bipartisan infrastructure
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bill would pass the Senate, and they’ve cautioned that the measure’s economic impact won’t come in one fell swoop once it becomes law.
“Spending will take a few years to ramp up and will in any case be spread over the rest of the decade,” said Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, in a recent note.
Pearce added that it’s “unlikely that the infrastructure bill will become law anytime soon,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat, faces pressure from progressive Democrats and has said she “won’t bring a vote on the infrastructure bill until the Senate has passed a reconciliation package containing the broader infrastructure and social welfare spending President Joe Biden has called for.”
Democratic-run Washington is aiming to take a two-step approach to big spending. First, the bipartisan infrastructure plan has drawn the 60 or more votes in the 50-50 Senate that are needed to bypass the filibuster. Next, Senate Democrats plan to go it alone to pass a $3.5 trillion package by a simple majority vote through a process known as budget reconciliation. That bigger package calls for massive spending on efforts related to “human infrastructure,” climate change and other Democratic priorities.
Senate Democrats on Monday released the text of a budget resolution that would allow them to pass their $3.5 trillion package. Schumer signaled in a Monday letter to his colleagues that an extensive process still lies ahead for the larger package, with meetings planned while lawmakers are on their August recess.
“Please remember that the resolution only includes ‘top-line’ reconciliation instructions to the committees, and that every Senator will have opportunities to shape and influence the final reconciliation bill after adoption of the Budget Resolution,” Schumer wrote in the letter. “I have asked the Chairs of the committees to hold regular virtual meetings with every committee member during the recess to develop the legislation.”
