$1T infrastructure deal gets sudden bipartisan nod in Senate

The U.S. Senate surprised just about everybody with a 67-32 vote late Wednesday to start formal consideration of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, an amount far below President Biden’s original proposal but still something unexpected in the evenly split 50-50 Senate chamber.

The deal covers $550 billion in new spending, down from $600 billion in an earlier draft, with $65 billion to expand broadband and $73 billion to modernize the nation’s electric grid. The biggest spending would go for highways and bridges at $110 billion, with $55 billion for clean water and $50 billion for cybersecurity protection of infrastructure.

Another $7.5 billion would go for electric vehicle charging stations and $2.5 billion for expanding the fleet of electric school buses. Also, $39 billion would go for public transit with an added $66 billion for Amtrak’s maintenance backlog and upgrades.

A separate measure has already passed the Senate for $52 billion to bolster U.S. chip manufacturing and research, but its progress in the House is apparently not moving fast enough for a group of all the major chipmakers and their customers including AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, Cisco, AWS, Dell, General Electric, and HPE.

The group, called the Semiconductors in America Coalition, on Wednesday sent a letter to congressional leaders calling on Congress “to work together to ensure this funding is approved and sent to the president for his signature. The president has already highlighted the urgent need for this funding in his budget request…We look forward to working with you to ensure this funding is adopted promptly.”

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The Senate’s 67-32 vote to proceed on consideration of the separate infrastructure plan included 17 Republicans in favor, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It isn’t clear he will support the final bill, however.  Lead GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said he believes GOP support will grow and called the current plan “pretty darn good for a start.”

Negotiations between leaders in both parties and the White House have gone on for weeks, but Biden welcomed the initial accord, saying it is on par with building the transcontinental railroad or the Interstate highway network. “This deal signals to the world that our democracy can function,” he said.

Biden is separately pushing for a $3.5 trillion spending plan that includes child care and health care, which is staunchly opposed by Republicans.

A GOP summary of the Senate measure obtained by the Associated Press said the five-year spending in the infrastructure plan would be paid for with $205 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief aid and $53 billion in unemployment insurance aid that some states halted, among other measures such as sales of broadcast spectrum and reinstating fees that chemical companies pay for cleaning up hazardous waste sites and $49 billion from reversing a Trump-era pharmaceutical rebate.