Senators unveiled a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure bill during a rare Sunday session after negotiators worked through the weekend.
The 2,702-page bill, spearheaded by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and a larger group of roughly two dozen negotiators, is substantially narrower than the multitrillion-dollar plan envisioned by President Biden earlier this year but includes a wide range of funding for roads, bridges, transit, broadband and water.
“We are proud this evening to announce this legislation, and we look forward very much to working with our colleagues in a collaborative and open way over the coming days to work through this historic investment in infrastructure,” said Sinema from the Senate floor with the other negotiators.
Portman touted the bill, saying that the group is “getting it right tonight for the American people, for our economy and for the future of our great country.”
Supporters of the bill are hopeful that they can pass the measure by the end of the week, though opponents could use the Senate’s rulebook to drag it out if they want to.
Though the bill, named the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, costs an estimated $1.2 trillion over eight years, it includes only $550 billion in new spending. That, according to the White House, includes the largest investment ever by the federal government in public transit and the largest investment ever in clean drinking water and wastewater.
The introduction of the bipartisan bill caps off months of behind-the-scenes negotiations among lawmakers, including announcing with Biden in late July that they had reached a deal on a framework for a $1.2 trillion bill over eight years.
After talks appeared on the brink of collapse last Monday amid intense public fighting, senators and the White House were able to get them back on track and announced Wednesday that they had reached a deal on the “major issues.”
But they spent much of this week trying to resolve final sticking points, including a last-minute hiccup on broadband that negotiators say didn’t get resolved until Friday. That kept negotiators perennially predicting they were on the cusp of unveiling their bill but not quite ready, kicking the Senate into a rare weekend session.
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