House passes $1 trillion infrastructure plan, sending it to Biden's desk

After months of tense negotiations, the House of Representatives passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill late Friday on a 228-206 vote, fulfilling a major priority for President Joe Biden's domestic agenda and cementing a political victory for Democrats.

The measure includes significant investments in roads, bridges, railways and broadband internet.

It passed largely along party lines, with 13 Republicans joining 215 Democrats in support of the legislation.

But the bill also saw six progressive Democrats — including Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — vote against it because a larger social spending measure failed to secure enough support for a floor vote on Friday.

Last-minute agreements

The late-night vote on infrastructure followed an agreement between factions of the Democratic Party, as moderate members issued further assurances that they would pass the larger spending bill when it comes up for a vote.

"We commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act, in its current form ... as expeditiously as we receive fiscal information from the Congressional Budget Office — but in no event later than the week of November 15th — consistent with the toplines for revenues and investments" in the White House framework, a key group of five moderates — Reps. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore. — said in statement.

The group added that if the CBO score is inconsistent with the White House framework, they "remain committed to working to resolve any discrepancies in order to pass Build Back Better legislation."

A short time later, the chair of the progressive caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., issued a statement saying her caucus had reached agreement with "our colleagues ... to advance both pieces of President Biden's legislative agenda."

Biden was involved in the final negotiations, issuing a statement Friday night urging all House Democrats to back final passage of the infrastructure bill. He added he was "confident that during the week of November 15, the House will pass the Build Back Better Act."

The infrastructure bill, which passed the Senate in August with strong bipartisan support, includes nearly $550 billion in new spending above what Congress was already planning to allocate for infrastructure over the next eight years.

The plan will be financed in a number of ways, including repurposing unspent emergency relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening tax enforcement for cryptocurrencies. The CBO has predicted the bill will add about $256 billion to projected deficits over the next 10 years.

Pathway to passage

The bill's journey from the Senate to Biden's desk has been a long and tumultuous one.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., intended to bring it and the larger bill to the floor for a vote on Friday. But her plans collapsed after a handful of moderate members insisted the spending package receive a score from the CBO.

"Some members want more clarification or validation of numbers that have been put forth ... that it is fully paid for, and we honor that request," Pelosi told reporters late Friday afternoon.

Progressive House Democrats had insisted for months that any vote on the infrastructure bill be tied to the broader social spending package, for fear that some moderate Democrats would delay or even withhold support for the larger package if the infrastructure bill passed first.

But Friday evening, once the group of moderates issued a statement expressing a commitment to eventually vote for the social spending bill, Jayapal announced that her caucus would vote on the infrastructure bill, essentially ceding the group's initial requirement of only voting on the two bills in tandem.

Some Democratic lawmakers have criticized the party for not being able to pass the bill ahead of Tuesday's gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Democrats ultimately sustained a major loss.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters after the election that Democrats "blew the timing" by not passing the legislation sooner, which would have given Democrats a legislative victory to campaign on.

Here's a closer look at what's in the infrastructure bill that now heads to Biden's desk.

Transportation

• Roads, bridges, major projects: $110 billion

• Passenger and freight rail: $66 billion

• Public transit: $39 billion

• Airports: $25 billion

• Port infrastructure: $17 billion

• Transportation safety programs: $11 billion

• Electric vehicles: $7.5 billion

• Zero and low-emission buses and ferries: $7.5 billion

• Revitalization of communities: $1 billion

Other infrastructure

• Broadband: $65 billion

• Power infrastructure: $73 billion

• Clean drinking water: $55 billion

• Resilience and Western water storage: $50 billion

• Removal of pollution from water and soil: $21 billion

Policy provisions

The pending Build Back Better spending package originally had a price tag of $3.5 trillion. Democrats chose to use a process called budget reconciliation to pass the package in the Senate without any Republican support. Given the extremely narrow margin in the chamber, every senator that caucuses with Democrats has to be on board in order for the bill to survive.

That proved difficult, with moderate Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona expressing concerns over the size and scope of the package.

Manchin said he could only support a package at $1.5 trillion, prompting Democrats to whittle down the multitrillion-dollar package to about $1.75 trillion.

The slimmed-down spending package includes universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, investments in affordable housing, premium reductions under the Affordable Care Act, major investments aimed at addressing climate change and an additional year of the expanded child tax credit.

NPR's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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