Daily US Times: The Senate moved closer to passing a 1 trillion US dollar bipartisan infrastructure package on Saturday after lawmakers from both Democratic Party and Republican Party came together and voted to clear a key procedural hurdle, but the action soon stalled out as a Republican refused to speed up approval of one of Joe Biden’s top priorities.
The infrastructure package would provide a massive injection of federal money for a range of public works programs, from bridges and roads to drinking water and broadband internet access and more. Republicans joined the Democrats in a rare stroke of bipartisanship to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure toward final votes.
The vote was 67-27, a robust tally and if it approved, the bill would go to the House.
But momentum slowed down as a few senators from TRepublican Party refused to yield 30 hours of required debate before the next set of procedural votes, which could delay swift passage of the package and result in a dayslong slog.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said: “We can get this done the easy way or the hard way.”
Despite the overwhelming support for the package, there was no deal struck by evening to quicken the process for considering amendments and final votes.
Chuck Schumer said senators would resume at noon Sunday.
Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, who voted to advance the package on Saturday, said her state needed money for a variety of developments including installing water systems in remote villages without running taps for hand-washing during the pandemic.
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