Road clears in Senate for Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan

RockedBuzz
By RockedBuzz 4 Min Read

You could call it an unlocking minority. In the deeply divided American political landscape, 18 Republican Senators on 50 (either 36%) confirmed this week -end their desire to move forward towards a bipartisan bill on infrastructure. The leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, in particular gave the green light to pass a new key stage in the examination of the text, the cornerstone of Joe Biden’s program. If the ambitions have been revised downwards, it must nevertheless record 500 billions of dollars in new spending in the country’s infrastructure (i.e. a total of 1. 200 billion over eight years including federal spending already planned ).

Among Republican supporters of the bill, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, close to Donald Trump, also pleaded for the end of the vote, after the political agreement given at the end of June. “America is in desperate need of real improvements to its infrastructure and the Senate must prove to the country that it can still do great things,” he defended on Twitter on Saturday.

Big day for bipartisan infrastructure bill.

America is in desperate need of real infrastructure improvements and the Senate needs to prove to the country that it can still get big things done.

– Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 7, 2021 The Senate, supposed to rise above the parties to reach consensus, has tended in recent years to come closer to the split functioning of the House of Representatives. The Americans are also asking for a modernization of the country’s aging infrastructure. One of its symbols skillfully brought to the fore in recent months is the Brent Spence Bridge which connects Kentucky and Ohio, home to Mitch McConnell and Rob Portman, who led the Republican delegation supporting the bill. .

Regulation of cryptocurrencies The text does not have any finished with the legislative procedure, with a few more amendments to study. While they were due to close their session on Friday to go on vacation, discussions were slowed down by a study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) judging that the project would nevertheless widen the federal deficit to the tune of 256 billions of dollars over ten years. Some senators want to be able to use funds dedicated to the fight against Covid and not used to finance the project.

The subject of the regulation of cryptocurrencies, included in the bill with in particular the question of declarative obligations, was also invited into the discussions. After the words of the president of the gendarme of the financial markets Gary Gensler, qualifying the sector of “Wild West” , the industry is more than ever maneuvering in Congress.

If the Senate passes the bill, the text will then have to pass the scrutiny of the deputies in the House of Representatives, where the Democrats hold a narrow majority. . The leader of the majority, Nancy Pelosi, continues to link the adoption of the text on infrastructures with that of “human” infrastructures : a bill of 3. 500 billion dollars that Republicans will not vote for and for which Democratic senators will not have to suffer no defection. A case that could still last several weeks, even several months.

Share This Article
Leave a comment