Infrastructure deal stalls in Senate

The Senate needs 60 votes to begin debate on an infrastructure bill that is not fully written yet. Republicans on Wednesday voted against moving forward until they could see the full text of the bill, which is expected to cost $1 trillion over the next five years. They asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to wait until Monday to give bipartisan negotiators time to iron out final details and finish writing the legislation. The bipartisan group missed its deadline to finalize the deal last week, and Schumer said the Senate needs to start the process in time to pass the infrastructure deal and a $3.5 trillion, Democrat-led budget reconciliation bill by the August recess.

What still needs to be done? A Republican group is negotiating with Democrats to cut down the infrastructure package to $600 billion. The Senate is only voting on the first phase of an overall $4 trillion plan that includes funding for transportation projects, family tax breaks, and Medicare expansion. Biden’s original plan included tax hikes for corporations and wealthy Americans, but bipartisan negotiators are working out a compromise.

Dig deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher interview financial analyst David Bahnsen on funding Biden’s infrastructure plan on The World and Everything in It podcast.