华盛顿——周日晚些时候，参议员们将1万亿美元的两党基础设施一揽子计划提升到了另一个障碍之上，尽管有少数人坚持试图破坏乔·拜登总统的首要任务之一，但民主党和共和党的联盟将该计划推向了通过的边缘。
罕见的两党势头保持稳定，这反映了该法案的受欢迎程度以及参议员们急于向国内选民展示他们能够兑现的承诺。作为近年来同类投资中最大的一项，该计划承诺投入数十亿美元，用于升级道路、桥梁、宽带互联网、水管和其他支撑国家的公共工程系统。
参议员们以68票对29票轻松克服了另一个60票的障碍。最终投票可能会拖到周二早些时候，因为一名共和党参议员，田纳西州的比尔·哈格蒂，拒绝在强制性辩论时间上让步。
纽约民主党多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)向同事们强调，随着参议院连续第二个周末开会，他们可以走“简单的路，也可以走艰难的路”。
舒默说:“我们将继续进行，直到我们完成这项法案。
《基础设施投资和就业法案》将为公共工程项目提供拜登所说的“历史性投资”，这是总统重建议程的第一部分。预计多达20名共和党人将与民主党人一起，在平分秋色的参议院中进行一场激烈的最终计票。如果获得批准，它将进入众议院。
交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格周日在“福克斯新闻频道”上说:“我们即将看到参议院通过这一举措。”他引用了“一个非凡的联盟”，其中包括来自两党的商界、劳工界和立法者。“我认为我们即将完成这项工作。”
一旦投票结束，参议员们将立即转向3.5万亿美元的儿童护理、老年人护理和其他项目的预算大纲，这是一项更具党派色彩的工作，预计只会得到民主党的支持。
尽管势头强劲，但行动在上周末陷入停顿唐纳德·特朗普，迫使参议院耗尽辩论时间，拒绝同意加快进程。
哈格蒂曾担任特朗普的驻日大使，他正带头花尽可能多的时间来辩论和修改两党法案，部分原因是他想减缓拜登下一个大法案的步伐，该法案计划为儿童保健、老年人医疗保险扩展和其他所谓的软基础设施需求提供3.5万亿美元。
一位不愿透露姓名的知情人士透露，特朗普周日上午给哈格蒂打了电话。哈格蒂周日晚些时候在参议院发表演讲时表示，他正试图阻止新政府支出的“社会主义债务炸弹”。
这位前总统一直公开批评两党法案，并批评拜登和支持该法案的两党参议员，尽管尚不清楚特朗普的抨击是否会对共和党参议员产生很大影响。他在周日的一份声明中庆祝了哈格蒂的立场。
参议院共和党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。迄今为止，尽管特朗普点名批评，但他还是让该法案取得了进展。“这是一种妥协，”麦康奈尔说。
随着周末僵局的持续，帮助谈判妥协的共和党人周日公开称赞这位前总统在白宫时引发了基础设施谈判，尽管这些法案从未成功。
共和党首席谈判代表、俄亥俄州参议员罗布·波特曼(Rob Portman)表示，早就应该改善美国的公共工程系统了。
他说:“美国人民应该拥有良好的道路、桥梁和基础设施来继续前进和旅行。
另一位谈判代表森米特·罗姆尼犹他州承认，没有任何妥协是完美的，但当他们面前有一项法案时，什么也不做不是一种选择。
他说:“现代的每一位总统都提出了基础设施一揽子计划。“这是为了表示让我们打破僵局。”
拜登在特拉华州度过周末，他说两党的一揽子计划提供了与建设横贯大陆的铁路或州际公路系统同等的投资。
参议员们在过去一周处理了对2700页的一揽子计划的近24项修正案，但迄今为止，没有一项实质性改变其框架。
随着参议员们寻求修改一个关于加密货币的部分，更多的修正案已经被提出，这是国防鹰派增加500亿美元用于国防相关基础设施的一个长期努力，也是一个两党修正案，旨在重新利用一部分已经送到各州的未开发的新冠肺炎救济援助。但不清楚他们是否会被考虑投票。
参议员们在该法案中发现了许多令人喜欢的地方，尽管它并没有完全让自由派和保守派满意，前者认为它太小，后者认为它太大。它将为许多州和城市自己负担不起的项目提供联邦资金。
国会预算办公室对该法案的分析引起了关注，尤其是共和党人。它的结论是，这项立法将在未来十年增加大约2560亿美元的赤字。
但该法案的支持者辩称，预算办公室无法考虑某些收入来源——包括来自未来经济增长的收入。预算办公室周六发布的额外分析显示，整体基础设施支出可能会提高生产率，降低最终成本。
在长达几个月的谈判中，为该方案买单一直是一个压力点，此前民主党人反对增加加油站支付的汽油税，共和党人抵制支持国税局起诉逃税者的计划。
与拜登更大的3.5万亿美元一揽子计划不同，该计划将通过提高企业和富人的税率来支付，两党的一揽子计划是通过重新利用其他资金来资助的，包括未开发的新冠肺炎援助，以及其他支出削减和收入流。
众议院正在休会，预计将在9月份返回时考虑拜登的两项基础设施计划。
Senators push infrastructure bill a step closer to passage
The Associated Press
The entrance to the Senate chamber is empty after lawmakers voted to advance the $1 trillion...
WASHINGTON -- Senators hoisted the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package over another hurdle late Sunday, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans pushing it closer to passage despite a few holdouts trying to derail one of President Joe Biden's top priorities.
The rare bipartisan momentum was holding steady, a reflection of the bill's popularity and the eagerness of senators to show voters back home they can deliver. One of the biggest investments of its kind in years, the package promises to unleash billions of dollars to upgrade roads, bridges, broadband internet, water pipes and other public works systems undergirding the nation.
Senators easily overcame another 60-vote hurdle on a vote of 68-29. Final votes could drag into early Tuesday as a single GOP senator, Tennessee's Bill Hagerty, refused to relent on the mandatory debate time.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stressed to colleagues that they could proceed the “easy way or the hard way,” as the Senate slogged through its second consecutive weekend session.
“We’ll keep proceeding until we get this bill done," Schumer said.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would provide what Biden has called a “historic investment” in public works programs, the first part of the president's his rebuilding agenda. As many as 20 Republicans are expected to join Democrats in the evenly split Senate for what would be a robust final tally. If approved, it would go to the House.
“We’re on the cusp of seeing that move through the Senate,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on “Fox News Sunday,” citing “a remarkable coalition” that includes business, labor and lawmakers from both parties. “I think we’re about to get this done.”
Once voting wraps up, senators immediately will turn to the budget outline for a $3.5 trillion package of child care, elder care and other programs that is a much more partisan undertaking and expected to draw only Democratic support.
Despite the momentum, action ground to a halt over the weekend when Hagerty, an ally ofDonald Trump, forced the Senate to run out the clock on debate time, refusing to consent to speeding up the process.
Hagerty, who had been Trump's ambassador to Japan, was leading the effort to take as much time as needed to debate and amend the bipartisan bill, in part because he wants to slow the march toward Biden's next big bill, which plans $3.5 trillion for child care, an expansion of Medicare for seniors and other so-called soft infrastructure needs.
Trump called Hagerty on Sunday morning, said a person familiar with the call who requested anonymity to discuss it. Hagerty said later Sunday in a speech on the Senate floor that he was trying to prevent a “socialist debt bomb” of new government spending.
The former president has been publicly critical of the bipartisan bill and criticizing Biden and the senators from both parties who support it, though it’s unclear whether Trump's broadsides will have much sway with Republican senators. He celebrated Hagerty's stand in a statement Sunday.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has so far allowed the bill to progress, despite the name-calling and criticism coming his way from Trump. “This is a compromise,” McConnell said.
As the weekend standoff dragged on, Republicans who helped negotiate the compromise spoke up Sunday commending the former president for having sparked infrastructure talks when he was in the White House even if those bills never panned out.
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead Republican negotiator, said it's time overdue to improve the nation's public works systems.
“The American people deserve to have good roads and bridges and infrastructure to drive on, travel on,” he said.
Another negotiator, Sen.Mitt Romney, R-Utah, acknowledged that no compromise is perfect, but doing nothing when there was a bill before them was not an option.
“Every president in the modern era has proposed an infrastructure package,” he said. “This was an effort to say let’s break the logjam.”
Biden, who was spending the weekend in Delaware, said the bipartisan package offers an investment on par with the building of the transcontinental railroad or interstate highway system.
Senators have spent the past week processing nearly two dozen amendments to the 2,700-page package, but so far none has substantially changed its framework.
More amendments have been offered as senators seek to revise a section on cryptocurrency, a long-shot effort by defense hawks to add $50 billion for defense-related infrastructure and a bipartisan amendment to repurpose a portion of the untapped COVID-19 relief aid that had been sent to the states. But it's unclear if they will be considered for votes.
Senators have found much to like in the bill, even though it does not fully satisfy liberals, who view it as too small, or conservatives, who find it too large. It would provide federal money for projects many states and cities could not afford on their own.
An analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office drew concerns, particularly from Republicans. It concluded that the legislation would increase deficits by about $256 billion over the next decade.
But the bill's backers argued that the budget office was unable to take into account certain revenue streams — including from future economic growth. Additional analysis released Saturday by the budget office suggested infrastructure spending overall could boost productivity and lower the ultimate costs.
Paying for the package has been a pressure point throughout the months of negotiations after Democrats objected to an increase in the gas tax paid at the pump and Republicans resisted a plan to bolster the IRS to go after tax scofflaws.
Unlike Biden's bigger $3.5 trillion package, which would be paid for by higher tax rates for corporations and the wealthy, the bipartisan package is funded by repurposing other money, including untapped COVID-19 aid, and other spending cuts and revenue streams.
The House is in recess and is expected to consider both Biden infrastructure packages when it returns in September.
