Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked debate on a bipartisan infrastructure package of roughly $1 trillion that makes up a major component of President Biden’s economic agenda but has yet to be finalized, dealing a temporary setback as senators scramble to finish the deal by next week.
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The vote does not doom the broader effort to invest in the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, and officials directly involved with the negotiations grew more optimistic by the hour on Wednesday that a broader legislative package could be completed in the coming days.
“In my view, we’ll have the agreement completed over the weekend,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a key member of the bipartisan group of senators hammering out the deal.
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It was clear from the outset that Wednesday’s vote would fail. But Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) pressed ahead, hoping to signal to the bipartisan group that time was not unlimited as Democratic leaders scrambled to placate liberals already impatient with the slow pace of the Senate talks.
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Republicans, however, declined to vote for the debate to proceed on a bill that is still unfinished, saying they needed until at least Monday to address lingering disagreements over the scope of the infrastructure package and how to pay for it.
The bill would have required 60 votes to advance, and the final tally was 49-51 against it. Schumer voted no, a procedural move that allows him to bring up the measure again soon if he chooses.
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The bipartisan group of senators issued a statement shortly after the vote asserting that a final deal is within reach.
“We have made significant progress and are close to a final agreement,” the statement said. “We will continue working hard to ensure we get this critical legislation right — and are optimistic that we will finalize, and be prepared to advance, this historic bipartisan proposal to strengthen America’s infrastructure and create good-paying jobs in the coming days.”
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Senate Republicans and Democrats, along with top White House officials, huddled late Tuesday night on Capitol Hill to try to bridge some of the divides, which include disputes over spending priorities such as transit, as well as over the best way to fund the package.
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An initial infrastructure deal was announced several weeks ago, but conservatives have balked at one of the key funding mechanisms — a plan to beef up the Internal Revenue Service to better collect unpaid taxes.
Schumer is hoping to speed up what is expected to be a contentious debate just weeks before lawmakers are set to depart for their August recess. The Senate also intends to advance a roughly $3.5 trillion budget deal in the same period, which further threatens to strain lawmakers’ time.
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Schumer insisted that Wednesday’s vote was just an effort to get the debate started, not a scheme to turn the screws on Republicans. “This vote is not a deadline to have every final detail worked out,” Schumer said. “It is not an attempt to jam anyone.”
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The failed vote leaves the chamber in many ways where it began: chasing a final consensus that has eluded them for months, while trying to beat a ticking legislative clock on the most ambitious piece of Biden’s first-year legislative agenda.
The difference was that by late Wednesday, a final deal seemed within reach.
Lawmakers from both parties who helped hammer out the early contours of the $1 trillion package were still pledging to stick together with the goal of trying again next week. About a dozen Senate Republicans sent a letter to Schumer earlier Wednesday, pledging to vote to advance the infrastructure package on the floor when it is finished.
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That number is key because at least 10 GOP senators would be needed to push forward almost any bill in the Senate, on top of all 50 Democratic senators.
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During the marathon negotiating session on Tuesday night, the bipartisan group of 10 senators and several administration officials made progress on narrowing differences on several remaining policy provisions, according to senators and aides.
Some Republican senators voiced concerns to those inside the room — including White House aides Steve Ricchetti, Brian Deese and Louisa Terrell — that Schumer was pushing ahead with Wednesday’s vote, according to a person familiar with the discussion. Republicans feared it was a way to force them to make a commitment even while talks were still underway and the package was not fully formed.
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Democratic negotiators responded that Schumer was not trying to blow up the deal, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of a private discussion.
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That did not satisfy the Republicans.
“I still don’t understand why Sen. Schumer’s having the vote today, when he knows it will fail today and would succeed on Monday,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republicans hammering out the infrastructure agreement.
The Republicans’ annoyance did not seem likely to imperil a final deal, however. And many Democrats were wary of allowing talks to drag on indefinitely as Republicans hold out the tantalizing prospect of a bipartisan deal — fearing that deal might not materialize and in the meantime political momentum would be lost.
In the eyes of many Democrats, that is what happened with the Affordable Care Act in 2009, and they are determined to avoid a repeat.
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Despite the Republicans’ irritation, a senior White House official said Wednesday that the administration backed Schumer’s strategy.
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“I think it’s important to remember, as Sen. Schumer has himself said, this is a vote on a motion to proceed .？.？. not on the final package,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a CNN interview Wednesday morning.
Bedingfield said that “there is still plenty of opportunity for people to make amendments and to make sure that the final details of the bill are lined up with the agreement that President Biden struck with a group of Republicans and Democrats when they were here at the White House in June.”
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Biden has signaled mild frustration at what he sees as Republicans backing away from an IRS funding provision that both sides had agreed to, saying on Tuesday that “we shook hands on it.”
The president was traveling to Ohio on Wednesday to tout the infrastructure deal and hold a town hall with voters, an effort to keep up the pressure on wavering Republicans. Ohio is the home state of Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican who has been a leader in the bipartisan negotiations.
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The IRS provision had been expected to raise more than $100 million by building up the IRS’s enforcement capabilities so the agency could collect more in unpaid taxes. But many conservatives disliked that idea, wary of giving more power to an agency they deeply distrust.
So senators have been discussing alternative funding sources, including the notion of rolling back a proposed change to Medicare prescription drug rules that would have cost the government money. Postponing or eliminating the change, they hope, could provide funding to fill the gap in infrastructure costs.
John Wagner contributed to this report.