Spending bills crawl forward in Washington

Senators worked through the weekend on more than a dozen amendments to the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal. Eighteen Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, joined every Democrat in a vote to end debate on Sunday evening. The legislation now faces a final Senate vote. If it passes, it will head to the House as soon as next week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she will not address the infrastructure deal until the Senate also approves a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. Senate Democrats revealed the bill on Monday morning but are not expected to complete debates and amendments until September.

Why is it taking so long? Twenty senators traveled on Friday to attend former Sen. Mike Enzi’s funeral in Wyoming. Then Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., refused to vote for a measure that would speed up the process. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the budget and reported it would add roughly $256 billion to the deficit over the next decade. Hagerty said he could not vote for something that adds so much to the deficit.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Stew on funding plans for the bipartisan deal.