President Biden is poised to sign into law a sweeping $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure, notching an achievement that had long eluded his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.
Republicans and Democrats are expected to gather at the White House Monday afternoon when Biden signs the legislation, which is aimed at improving the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections.
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Trump had repeatedly tried and failed to secure a bipartisan infrastructure deal.
“Too often in Washington – the reason we don’t get things done is because we insist on getting everything we want. With this law, we focused on getting things done,” Biden is expected to say, according to his prepared remarks released by the White House.
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The Senate first passed the infrastructure bill in August with a 69-30 vote, the rare type of partnership Biden committed to in the 2020 campaign. The measure languished in the House for months, though, as liberal lawmakers sought to use their leverage to advance Biden’s larger climate and social spending bill.
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The bill finally passed the House earlier this month on a 228-to-206 vote, with 13 Republicans joining with most Democrats in voting “yes.”
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that during the signing ceremony, Biden will speak about the impact the legislation will have on Americans’ everyday lives.
“You’ll hear him say that America’s moving and life is going to get better for people across the country, and that this is part of his effort to finish the job … in getting the pandemic under control, making sure we are addressing rising costs — bringing costs down for the American people — and making us more competitive,” she said.
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Psaki also told reporters that Biden “invited everybody who supported it because he felt that was the right thing to do.”
“Whether people come or not, that’s their choice,” she said.
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The White House also announced that Biden has tapped former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu to serve as senior adviser for coordinating the infrastructure plan’s implementation.
Some supporters of the measure, such as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), are expected to travel to Washington for the event.
It remains unclear how many of the Republicans who voted for the bill will attend, however. Trump has said Republicans who voted for the measure — 19 senators and 13 House members — should be “ashamed of themselves” for “helping the Democrats.”
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Several House Republicans who backed the legislation have been threatened and harassed; last week, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) released the audio of an expletive-filled phone call in which a man in South Carolina called him a “traitor” and said he hopes the congressman, his staff and his entire family die.
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Other Republican lawmakers — most notably Trump loyalists Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Madison Cawthorn (N.C.) — have led criticism and attacks against their colleagues who backed the bill.
Greene, a House freshman who has previously accosted fellow members at the Capitol, said earlier this month that any House Republican who backed the measure would be “a traitor to our party, a traitor to their voters and a traitor to our donors.”
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After the vote, Greene tweeted the names and phone numbers of 12 of the 13 Republicans who voted in favor of the bill, which she described as “Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who voted for the bill and drew Trump’s wrath, has even tried to give more credit to his Senate caucus for helping pass the package.
McConnell, however, will not be attending Monday’s signing ceremony. He told a Kentucky radio station last week that he has “other things I’ve got to do.”
Mariana Alfaro, Jeff Stein and John Wagner contributed to this report.