华盛顿——参议院周六召开了一次罕见的周末会议，多数党领袖查克·舒默鼓励两党基础设施计划的作者完成近1万亿美元的法案，以便参议员们能够开始提出修正案。
几位参议员曾预测，该法案的文本将在周五晚些时候或周六早些时候准备好接受审查，但在参议院上午晚些时候开始办公时，这一工作还没有完成。在地板上进行了四个小时的最低限度的活动后，当密室凹进去时，它也没有准备好。相反，这项工作仍在幕后进行，不清楚投票何时进行。
纽约民主党参议员舒默表示，他理解完成如此大规模法案的起草是一项艰难的工程，但他警告称，只要完成两党基础设施计划和预算蓝图的投票所需的时间，他准备让立法者留在华盛顿，这将使参议院能够在今年晚些时候开始制定一项3.5万亿美元的大规模社会、健康和环境法案。
“完成的时间越长，我们在这里的时间就越长，但我们会把工作完成，”他说。
两党合作的计划要求在未来五年内增加5500亿美元的新支出，高于联邦预算水平。在国会山传阅的一份法案草案显示，该法案在提交时可能会超过2500页。它的资金来源可能不符合赤字鹰派的要求，包括重新利用未开发的新冠肺炎救济援助，以及依赖预计的未来经济增长。
主要投资包括1100亿美元的道路和桥梁投资、390亿美元的公共交通投资和660亿美元的铁路投资。还有550亿美元用于水和废水基础设施，以及数十亿美元用于机场、港口、宽带互联网和电动汽车充电站。
一个由两党参议员组成的小组周五帮助它扫清了又一个障碍，并准备在接下来的几天辩论和修改努力中看看支持是否会持续。
舒默希望在参议员8月休会前结束投票。
舒默周五晚上表示:“我们可能需要周末，我们可能会就几项修正案进行投票，但在我们共和党同事的合作下，我相信我们可以在几天内完成两党基础设施法案。
但得克萨斯州共和党参议员约翰·科宁预测，“这将是一场苦战。”
本周早些时候，17名共和党参议员和所有民主党人一起投票开始辩论，启动了一个漫长的过程来审议该法案。这种支持主要是在周五的另一次程序性投票中，少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)表示支持。，再次投票赞成推动这一进程。
但未来几天，愿意通过乔·拜登总统议程关键部分的共和党参议员人数是增加还是减少，将决定总统的签名问题能否越过终点线。
科宁说，他预计舒默将允许所有参议员有机会制定法案，并允许两党成员进行修正。
“我感到失望的是，参议员舒默认为试图迫使我们对一项并不完整的法案进行投票是合适的，但我希望我们现在可以稍微踩刹车，花时间和精力评估这项立法的好处和成本，”科宁说。
俄亥俄州参议员罗布·波特曼(Rob Portman)和亚利桑那州参议员基斯顿·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema)周五发表声明称，他们接近完成立法文本，并希望在当天晚些时候公布。但是周五来了又走，没有最后的文书工作。
参议员们说:“当反映我们小组产品的立法文本最终确定后，我们将按照过去四个月我们两党合作的方式一起公开它。
弗吉尼亚州参议员马克·华纳(Mark Warner)周六表示，谈判人员正在敲定最后几个部分，但他没有预测参议员们何时可以进行修正和辩论。他说，来自两党的一些议员在某些方面对该法案进行了严厉批评，但最终，它将提供一种投资，这种投资是议员们多年来一直在谈论的，但却无法贯彻到底。
“有一些基础设施的感觉，这应该不难做到。如果不难做到，为什么要30年才能走到这一步?”华纳说。
两党努力的结果将为下一场辩论奠定基础，这场辩论将围绕拜登雄心勃勃的3.5万亿美元支出计划展开，这是一项严格的党派追求，旨在推行影响深远的计划和服务，包括儿童保育、税收减免和医疗保健，几乎触及美国生活的每个角落。共和党人强烈反对该法案，该法案将需要简单多数，并可能试图阻止两者。
Schumer: Senators will 'get the job done' on infrastructure
WASHINGTON -- The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their nearly $1 trillion bill so that senators can begin offering amendments.
Several senators had predicted that the text of the bill would be ready for review late Friday or early Saturday, but it was not done when the Senate opened for business late in the morning. Nor was it ready when the chamber recessed after four hours of minimal activity on the floor. Rather, the work was still taking place behind the scenes and it was unclear when votes would occur.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said he understood that completing the writing of such a large bill is a difficult project, but he warned that he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint that would allow the Senate to begin work later this year on a massive, $3.5 trillion social, health and environmental bill.
”The longer it takes to finish, the longer we will be here, but we’re going to get the job done," he said.
The bipartisan plan calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years above projected federal levels. A draft bill circulating Capitol Hill indicated it could have more than 2,500 pages when introduced. It’s being financed from funding sources that might not pass muster with deficit hawks, including repurposing untapped COVID-19 relief aid and relying on projected future economic growth.
Among the major investments are $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit and $66 billion for rail. There’s also $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure as well as billions for airports, ports, broadband internet and electric vehicle charging stations.
A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support could hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it.
Schumer wants the voting to be wrapped up before senators break for their August recess.
“We may need the weekend, we may vote on several amendments, but with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues, I believe we can finish the bipartisan infrastructure bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said Friday night.
But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted, “It's going to be a grind."
Earlier this week, 17 GOP senators joined all Democrats in voting to start the debate, launching what will be a dayslong process to consider the bill. That support largely held Friday during another procedural vote, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., again voting yes to nudge the process along.
But whether the number of Republican senators willing to pass a key part of President Joe Biden’s agenda grows or shrinks in the days ahead will determine if the president’s signature issue can make it across the finish line.
Cornyn said he expects Schumer to allow all senators to have a chance to shape the bill and allow for amendments from members of both parties.
“I've been disappointed that Sen. Schumer has seen fit to try to force us to vote on a bill that does not exist in its entirety, but I hope we can now pump the brakes a little bit and take the time and care to evaluate the benefits and the cost of this legislation," Cornyn said.
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., released a statement on Friday saying they were close to finalizing the legislative text and hoped to make it public later in the day. But Friday came and went without final paperwork.
“When legislative text is finalized that reflects the product of our group, we will make it public together consistent with the bipartisan way we’ve worked for the last four months," the senators said.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Saturday that negotiators were finalizing the last few pieces, but he had no predictions when it would be ready for senators to have amendments and debate. He said some lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have panned the bill in some ways, but in the end, it would provide the kind of investment that lawmakers have talked about for years but have been unable to follow through on.
“There's been some of the sense of, well, infrastructure, that shouldn't be hard to do. If it wasn't hard to do, why has it taken 30 years to get to this moment?" Warner said.
The outcome with the bipartisan effort will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life. Republicans strongly oppose that bill, which would require a simple majority, and may try to stop both.
