U.S. Senators Craft $1-Trillion Infra Bill Trump Wants Junked

After much delay, senators unveiled a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package Sunday night (Monday morning, August 2, 2021, in Manila), wrapping up days of painstaking work on the inches-thick bill and launching what is certain to be a lengthy debate over President Joe Biden’s big priority.

Photo Insert: Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia speaks at a news conference with the House Problem Solvers Caucus outside the Capitol

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in at some 2,700 pages, and senators could begin amending it soon. Despite the hurry-up-and-wait during a rare weekend session, emotions bubbled over once the bill was produced.

The final product was not intended to stray from the broad outline senators had negotiated for weeks with the White House, Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Brian Slodysko reported for the Associated Press (AP).

"We haven’t done a large, bipartisan bill of this nature in a long time,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. He said a final vote could be held “in a matter of days.”

A key part of Biden’s agenda, the bipartisan bill is the first phase of the president’s infrastructure plan. It calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels, what could be one of the more substantial expenditures on the nation’s roads, bridges, waterworks, broadband, and the electric grid in years.

Defeated former president Donald Trump wanted Republican senators to dump any infrastructure bill but his plea apparently was ignored.

Senators and staff labored behind the scenes for days to write the massive bill. It was supposed to be ready Friday, but by Sunday even more glitches were caught and changes made.

To prod the work, Schumer kept senators in session over the weekend, encouraging the authors to finish up work. Late Sunday night, most of the 10 senators involved in the bipartisan effort rose on the Senate floor to mark the moment.

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