The Senate passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) by a vote of 69 to 30 today. While this marks a major milestone for getting the bill enacted into law, there are a few more hurdles to overcome.
The bill now goes to the House for consideration. If the House passes the bill without any changes it would go directly to the President for his signature. The White House has privately cautioned House Democrats about making any changes to the bill saying it would risk delaying or blowing up the deal.
Another complication is that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said she won’t bring the bipartisan infrastructure bill to the House floor for a vote until the Senate also passes a much larger budget reconciliation package that includes funding for the party’s climate, health, and social priorities. The Senate released a $3.5T budget resolution on Monday that begins the budget reconciliation process. This budget framework instructs a number of Senate committees to draft their pieces of the reconciliation proposal by September 15. They hope to pass the budget resolution by Thursday of this week, but the budget reconciliation package won’t be completed until later in September.
Moderate Democrats in the House are encouraging the Speaker to bring the chamber back into session as soon as possible for a vote on the infrastructure bill. The House is not scheduled to come back until September 20.