Senate passes massive bipartisan infrastructure package

The Senate’s massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure package marked a big bipartisan achievement after months of negotiations.

The legislation, which still needs to be passed by the House, would provide $550 billion in new federal spending over five years.

Here are the key things to know about the bill:

Not just traditional infrastructure: The new investments would reach far beyond the traditional infrastructure projects for roads, bridges and railroads. There’s also money to improve Americans’ access to broadband, for electric school buses, new tax regulations on cryptocurrencies, delaying a drug rebate rule and to start addressing racial discrimination in infrastructure. 

Compromise reached to pay for package: The bipartisan bill does not include corporate tax hikes, like President Biden first proposed to pay for the spending. Instead, lawmakers found other ways to help cover the cost, like imposing new Superfund fees and repurposing some Covid relief funds approved by Congress during the pandemic. Additional costs that are not covered through those methods would be covered by $519 billion in offsets, according to negotiators.

What’s missing?: The deal leaves out Biden’s proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster caregiving for aging Americans and those with disabilities — the second largest measure in the American Jobs Plan.

Also left on the sideline: $100 billion for workforce development, which would have helped dislocated workers, assisted underserved groups and put students on career paths before they graduate high school.

The deal also leaves out the $18 billion Biden proposed to modernize the Veterans Affairs hospitals, which are on average 47 years older than private-sector hospitals.

The legislation is now headed to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future before reaching Biden’s desk.  

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) listen as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) holds a bill enrollment signing ceremony for the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. 

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today saying they will not support the now-Senate-passed infrastructure bill until Democrats warned the House leadership that a majority of their members will withhold their support for a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill until their priorities are included in the larger spending package that will be taken up this fall.

In their letter – signed by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Katie Porter and Ilhan Omar – they write that they “encourage” the leaders to “engage with our caucus” and “that the Senate first adopts this reconciliation package before House consideration of any bipartisan infrastructure legislation” putting them at odds with House moderates who wrote to Pelosi urging her to put the bipartisan infrastructure package up for a vote without pairing it to the broader package.

President Biden praised the bipartisan outcome of the infrastructure bill and thanked both Democrats and Republicans for keeping their word in passing it through the Senate.

Biden specifically thanked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his support, adding that the “Republicans who supported this bill, you showed a lot of courage. I want to personally thank you for that. And I’ve called most of you on the phone to do just that. You have and, no doubt you will, disagree with me on many issues. Where we can agree, we should. Here on this bill, we proved we can still come together to do big things, important things for the American people.”

The bill passed by a bipartisan majority of 69-30, with 19 Republican senators voting for the bill, including McConnell.

Biden also praised Democrats for pushing for the legislation. “We can be proud of this unprecedented investments that are going to transform the nation and change millions of lives for the better,” he said.

Biden also acknowledged that the Senate passage is just the one part of the process, and now faces its next journey in the House.

“Let’s be clear. Work is far from done. The bill now has to go to the House of Representatives where I look forward to winning its approval,” the President noted.

President Biden thanked the bipartisan group of senators “for doing what they told me they would do” and delivering the legislation. He added that the reports of the “death of this legislation” were “premature.”

Vice President Kamala Harris outlined the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate today.

“Today, we move one step closer to making a once in a generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. Today Democrats, independents and Republicans in the United States Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts,” Harris said in remarks from the White House.

Harris highlighted how the investments from the bill would help improve the nation’s roads, bridges and transportation without raising taxes on the middle class.

Watch here:

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are delivering remarks on the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill from the White House.

As CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported Monday, the President wants to take a bit of a victory lap even though the deal is far from the finish line. It comes as the administration is looking to shore up support in August, when presidencies historically face a bit of a slump. 

The bill — called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — features $550 billion in new federal spending over five years:

What happens next: The House of Representatives will likely not take up the bill until the fall. The House is out for August recess and Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that the chamber won’t take up the bipartisan bill until Senate Democrats pass a separate and more expansive package without GOP votes under the budget reconciliation process, a stand that has been met with criticism from Republicans and pushback from some moderate Democrats.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that Americans will begin to feel the effects of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package “very soon,” assuming it clears through the House of Representatives.

“We have many shovel-ready projects. We know that we have to start laying fiber to connect everybody to broadband. So Americans will feel it within a matter of months certainly,” Raimondo said, calling it a “big step forward” for the country.

While timing on the House vote remains unclear, Raimondo told CNN’s Ana Cabrera she is confident it will pass.

Raimondo predicted that the package would create millions of jobs within the next decade.

On the current surplus of available jobs in the US, Raimondo said that President Biden’s reconciliation package will include job training and investments in community college and child care. She also said that more Americans need to get vaccinated so workers can feel safe.

The US Senate passed a historic, sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan package on Tuesday by a wide bipartisan majority vote of 69-30 to shore up the nation’s crumbling infrastructure with funding for priorities like roads, bridges, rail, transit and the electric grid.

The vote marks a major achievement for both parties and President Biden, fulfilling key agenda items, including his promise to work across the aisle. It now heads to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future, before it can be sent to Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

Vice President Kamala Harris gaveled the final vote.

These 19 Republican senators joined Democrats in voting for the bipartisan infrastructure deal:

After announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19 last Monday, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham returned to the Senate floor today, masked, to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package. 

He voted in favor of the bill. 

Vice President Kamala Harris announces the final vote on August 10, 2021.

The US Senate just passed a historic, sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan package to shore up the nation’s crumbling infrastructure with funding for priorities like roads, bridges, rail, transit and the electric grid. Vice President Kamala Harris announced the final vote, 69 to 30.

The legislation will now head to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future, before it can be sent to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

The bill — called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — features $550 billion in new federal spending over five years:

What will happen next: The House of Representatives will likely not take up the bill until the fall. The House is out for August recess and Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that the chamber won’t take up the bipartisan bill until Senate Democrats pass a separate and more expansive package without GOP votes under the budget reconciliation process, a stand that has been met with criticism from Republicans and pushback from some moderate Democrats.

Read more about today’s vote here.

Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Capitol Hill as the Senate votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, per a White House official. 

“Happening soon, the Vice President will travel to Capitol Hill to preside over the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” the official said. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at the Capitol on August 10, 2021.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the imminent passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, saying in floor remarks, “the American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades. In a few moments the Senate will pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill.”

Previewing action on the $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which Senate Democrats will turn to today after they pass the bipartisan bill, Schumer said, “Once this bill is complete, the Senate will immediately turn to the second track in our two tracks strategy, passing a budget resolution that will unlock historic investments in American jobs, American families and the fight against climate change.”

“After we pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill this morning, Senators should expect to vote to proceed to the budget resolution and we will begin the process for debating amendments shortly thereafter. Democrats are prepared to move quickly and decisively through the amendment process,” he said, adding, “the longer it takes to finish the longer the Senate will be in session.”

“The Senate is on track to finish both tracks and deliver an outstanding result,” Schumer added, referring to the Democrats’ two track strategy of pursing a bipartisan bill and a partisan plan that can pass in the Senate without GOP votes.

The US Senate convenes at the Capitol on August 10, 2021.

The Senate is holding a final vote on the massive $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. This is a simple majority vote. 

The package, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is the culmination of drawn-out and painstaking negotiations between a bipartisan group of senators and the Biden administration and will allow both parties to claim a win after extensive work across the aisle.

It features $550 billion in new federal spending over five years.

Here’s a breakdown of some key components of the package:

What happens next: If the bill passes in the Senate, it will then go to the House of Representatives where its future remains uncertain. The House likely will not take up the bill until the fall and the chamber is currently out for August recess.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that the chamber won’t take up the bipartisan bill until Senate Democrats pass their larger social, environmental infrastructure package — a position that continues to be met with criticism from Republicans and some moderate Democrats alike.

After this morning’s vote, the Senate is expected to quickly shift their attention to the budget resolution, which needs to pass both chambers of Congress first before Democrats can move on their separate $3.5 trillion package, which they hope they can pass with Democratic votes.

Democrats unveiled that budget resolution on Monday. The budget resolution summary lays out Democrats’ plan to invest in four major buckets: families, climate, health care, and infrastructure and jobs. It notably does not include an expansion of the US national debt, as Republicans have pushed Democrats to do.

Eight moderate House Democrats are raising concerns about the Democrats’ budget plans that would pave the way for passing the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, according to a letter obtained by CNN

They are also calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give an immediate vote to the infrastructure bill and not tie it to the reconciliation package.

Pelosi has repeatedly said she won’t allow the infrastructure deal to get a vote until reconciliation passes the Senate.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune speaks at the Capitol on August 10, 2021.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, who is up for reelection next year, said he plans to oppose the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Thune hasn’t said if he would run again.

“I’m a no on the infrastructure bill,” Thune told CNN , pointing to CBO’s score that projected a deficit as well as the way it was financed. He told us Trump’s opposition was “not a factor.”

Thune also projected that vote-a-rama til on the budget resolution would go late night. He hoped it would be done by midnight.

Reminder: The budget resolution is different than reconciliation. The resolution needs to be approved by both chambers before they can move on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan. The reconciliation bill still needs to be drafted and will be considered in the fall.

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on August 5, 2021.

The bipartisan infrastructure deal that the Senate is expected to vote on leaves out President Biden’s proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster caregiving for aging and disabled Americans — the second largest measure in the American Jobs Plan.

His proposal would have expanded access to long-term care services under Medicaid, eliminating the wait list for hundreds of thousands of people. It would have provided more opportunity for people to receive care at home through community-based services or from family members.

It would also have improved the wages of home health workers, who now make about $12 an hour, and it would have put in place an infrastructure to give caregiving workers the opportunity to join a union.

Also left on the sideline: $100 billion for workforce development, which would have helped dislocated workers, assisted underserved groups and put students on career paths before they graduate high school.

The deal also leaves out the $18 billion Biden proposed to modernize the Veterans Affairs hospitals, which are on average 47 years older than a private-sector hospital.

What’s also out is a slew of corporate tax hikes that Biden wanted to use to pay for the American Jobs Plan but that Republicans staunchly opposed.

Biden’s original proposal called for raising the corporate income tax rate to 28%, up from the 21% rate set by Republicans’ 2017 tax cut act, as well as increasing the minimum tax on US corporations to 21% and calculating it on a country-by-country basis to deter companies from sheltering profits in international tax havens.

It also would have levied a 15% minimum tax on the income the largest corporations report to investors, known as book income, as opposed to the income reported to the Internal Revenue Service, and would have made it harder for US companies to acquire or merge with a foreign business to avoid paying US taxes by claiming to be a foreign company.

Read more about the bipartisan infrastructure deal here.

While senators are confident the massive $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package will pass in their chamber, the legislation faces an uncertain future in the House.

The massive bipartisan infrastructure package, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is the culmination of drawn-out and painstaking negotiations between a bipartisan group of senators and the Biden administration and will allow both parties to claim a win after extensive work across the aisle.

It features $550 billion in new federal spending over five years. The measure invests $110 billion in funding toward roads, bridges and major projects, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to rebuild the electric grid, $65 billion to expand broadband Internet access, and $39 billion to modernize and expand transit systems.

Among many other priorities, the bill also includes $55 billion for water infrastructure, $15 billion of which will be directed toward replacing lead pipes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that the chamber won’t take up the bipartisan bill until Senate Democrats pass their larger social, environmental infrastructure package — a position that continues to be met with criticism from Republicans and some moderate Democrats alike.

The GOP senators who support the bipartisan infrastructure bill note that there are major differences between their bill and the Democratic package. They say it’s essential for Republicans to show that they’re not just a knee-jerk opposition party and can instead find consensus on pressing national problems important to voters.

But a report from the Congressional Budget Office that found the bipartisan package will “add $256 billion to projected deficits” between 2021 and 2031 has complicated deliberations for some GOP senators.

Read more about where infrastructure stands in Congress here.

The White House and Congress have been looking at a multitude of measures that would pay for the infrastructure proposal.

But while lawmakers claim the bill pays for itself, the CBO score found it would instead add billions of dollars to the deficit over 10 years.

The bottom line is that the legislation would directly add roughly $350 billion to the deficit, when taking into account $90 billion of spending in new contract authority, said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that tracks federal spending.

The CBO brushed aside several major provisions that lawmakers said would help pay for the bill, such as repurposing certain unused Covid relief funds and using the savings generated by certain states terminating pandemic unemployment benefits early. The agency found these measures would provide roughly $22 billion in savings, rather than the roughly $263 billion claimed by lawmakers, Goldwein said.

Also, the report found that the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auctions would generate far less than the $87 billion originally claimed by lawmakers.

The CBO also said that the bill would raise about $50 billion by imposing new Superfund fees and changing the tax reporting requirements for cryptocurrencies, among other measures.

According to the bill text and the 57-page summary of the bill released earlier this month, lawmakers leaned heavily on repurposing unused Covid relief funds to pay for the legislation. The bill text lists savings from rescinding unobligated appropriations for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program for small businesses and nonprofit groups, the Paycheck Protection Program, the Education Stabilization Fund and relief for airline workers, among others.

Another item in the bill text is $53 billion that stems in part from states opting to terminate the pandemic unemployment benefits early to push the jobless to return to work. Some 26 states announced that they would stop at least one of the federal unemployment programs before they are set to end in early September — though Indiana and Maryland have had to continue the payments after losing court battles. Also, the Congressional Budget Office reduced its forecast for the unemployment rate because of the improving economy.

More savings would come from delaying a controversial Trump administration rule that would radically change how drugs are priced and paid for in Medicare and Medicaid until 2026, at the earliest. The measure would effectively ban drug makers from providing rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and insurers. Instead, drug companies would be encouraged to pass the discounts directly to patients at the pharmacy counter. It is currently expected to go into effect in 2023. The summary lists the savings as $49 billion and the CBO report as nearly $51 billion.

Also, the infrastructure proposal relies on generating $56 billion in economic growth resulting from a 33% return on investment on the long-term projects, according to the summary.

Biden said in a statement that the bill won’t raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year and does not include a gas tax increase or fee on electric vehicles. He initially called for raising taxes on corporations to fund the infrastructure investments — but that proposal did not make it into the latest package after strong opposition from Republicans.

President Biden is planning to leave Wilmington on Tuesday morning and be at the White House for the Senate vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, two officials say.

The President is poised to deliver a speech — either in the Rose Garden or inside the White House, depending on the weather — to mark the expected passage of a key piece of his economic agenda.

As CNN’s Manu Raju has reported, the timing is expected to be during the daylight hours, rather than overnight. This is in coordination with Schumer and the West Wing. Biden wants to take a bit of a victory lap — even though the two-part deal is far from the finish — as the White House tries to shore up his support in August.

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, on August 8, 2021.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill is expected to face a final vote in the Senate this morning after months of negotiations.

In total, the deal includes $550 billion in new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years. However, the package would add $256 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report released Thursday.

Once senators vote on the legislation, they will then send it to the House for approval before the bill heads to President Biden’s desk.

Here’s what we know so far about the latest version of the agreement, according to the CBO report, the bill text, as well as a fact sheet provided by the White House and a 57-page summary released earlier this month.

Read more about the bill here.