President Joe Biden’s long-awaited infrastructure bill has gotten its final clearance from the Senate. With the 68-29 vote coming into play, the Senate has approved a bill that was negotiated by a group of 10 statesmen.
The final parts of the legislation are expected to come in late Monday night or the early hours of Tuesday at maximum. Subsequently, the bill’s passing will be followed by a budget debate spanning over 50 hours and a “vote-a-rama” on politically symbolic topics.
According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the process has been “good” and is observed to be moving along well. “We will move forward to wrap this up as expeditiously as possible, and then move on to the budget resolution,” affirmed Schumer after the vote.
The infrastructure bill has been moved to the final stage with the help of 18 Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 50 other Senate Democrats. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Roger Wicker were amongst those who gave the concluding debate, despite previously voting against it.
Several senators had spent the entire weekend trying to negotiate amendments regarding the infrastructure bill’s cryptocurrency policies and also making coronavirus aid money to be spent entirely on infrastructure.
However, they were unable to reach an agreement. Sen. Bill Hagerty declared he would not permit the infrastructure bill to pass quickly. As a result, most of the Democrats faced a setback as they anticipated the GOP to have more amendment votes.
Till now, the Senate has considered an additional 20 amendments to the bill so far, but tries to vote on two dozen more did not work out as Hagerty declined to expedite the bill. Additionally, Hagerty also attempted to enforce 17 amendments by unanimous agreement, but Sen Krysten Sinema objected to the decision.
Several other GOP Senators also tried to bring up their amendments on Sunday, but they were all unsuccessful in their attempts. And while the Senate part of the infrastructure bill is pending, the legislation still faces an uncertain future.
Ultimately, Pelosi and Schumer have agreed on a “two-track process” to implement Biden’s agenda as much as possible. The Senate will then focus on setting up the bill after it finishes work on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
