Biden’s proposal won the backing of 18 Republican senators,
Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP / Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The United States Senate agreed this Saturday move toward voting on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, a procedure that paves the way for this important project.
With 67 votes in favor and 27 against, the senators agreed to end the debate, thus avoiding the danger of obstruction of this initiative.
The infrastructure plan proposal will go directly to a final vote in the Senate, although it was not defined when it will occur.
Biden’s proposal this time won the backing of 18 Republican senators, including John Cornyn (Texas) and Deb Fischer (Nebraska), who had previously voted against it.
If the Senate is endorsed, the bill will go to the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority.
The Senate met today for the second consecutive weekend to discuss, before the August recess, this plan that seeks to invest approximately one trillion dollars over the next eight years for the reconstruction of bridges, railroads, ports and airports in the country.
The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, opened the day by warning that they will remain in session until they finish their work and indicated that they can do it “the easy way or the hard way.”
However, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – and one of those who has promoted the bill – admitted before the vote that there are “many pending amendments” that would improve the legislation.
The vote took place after a week of deliberations on the individual amendments tabled by the various senators and after agreement was reached on the final 2,700-page text last Sunday.
President Biden took to his Twitter account this Saturday to defend the bipartisan infrastructure agreement as a “historic investment.”
Biden assured that this project, together with his “Rebuild Better” plan, will create an average of “two million well-paying jobs each year over the next decade.”
“We cannot afford not to,” he added.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. It will create good-paying, union jobs repairing our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, and building energy transmission lines.
We can’t afford not to do it.
– President Biden (@POTUS) August 7, 2021
We can’t just build back to the way things were before COVID-19, we have to build back better. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and my Build Back Better plan will grow our economy, and create an average of 2 million good-paying jobs every year over the next decade.
– President Biden (@POTUS) August 7, 2021
In a statement, the White House Office of Management and Budget highlighted that the plan “represents the most important long-term investment in infrastructure and US competitiveness in almost a century.”
In March, Biden proposed a $ 2.3 trillion investment, but the White House had to downgrade it amid criticism from Republicans.
Referring to the plan of his successor, former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) considered it a “shame” and warned representatives of his party, the Republican, that it will be “very difficult to endorse someone fool enough to vote in favor of this agreement ”.