After weeks of negotiations, the Senate is back on track to pass the 1 trillion USD bipartisan infrastructure plan, as the bipartisan coalition grows.
Final Senate votes are expected later today, and the bill would then go to the House of Representatives.
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Negotiations over the $1 trillion infrastructure bill had proceeded in fits and starts before both the Republican and Democratic parties began to form a bipartisan coalition.
Be that as it may, the infrastructure deal has come off today since the key senate vote this morning advanced the bill.
"On this vote, the yeas are 67, the nays are 27, three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative. The motion is agreed to."
All told, some 70 senators appear poised to carry the bipartisan package to passage, a potentially robust tally of lawmakers keen to pass the bill.
Democrats have been convincing Republicans to change their mind. And as Democrats toughed it out, although most Republicans didn't really voice their support publicly, the next best thing: many Republicans still gave tacit approval to the bill, and are also expected to side with Democrats and pass the bill tomorrow.
That has Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying it's "the first time the Senate has come together around such a package in decades."
Still, not all senators are supportive of the plan. Despite the growing coalition, negotiations still came to a full stop when Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee sided with Trump and refused to let the bill progress.
Some Republican lawmakers were concerned after the Congressional Budget Office said it would add 256 billion USD to deficits over the decade.
Two Republicans, Jerry Moran and Todd Young from Kansas and Indiana respectively, had been part of initial negotiations shaping the package, but before the vote they announced they couldn't support it.
In lieu of pressuring lawmakers, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has stayed behind the scenes for much of the bipartisan vote. But he has cast his own votes repeatedly to allow the bill to progress, calling the bill a compromise.
Prior to today's key vote, Trump had talked to Bill Hagerty, who had been his ambassador to Japan to delay the passage as part of his infrastructure bill sabotage. But it turns out that his sabotage has become a failure. And some Democrats have taken to calling Trump a bad apple.
The senate Democrats' unveiling of the new 3.5 trillion package in which the government undertakes to provide support for child care, elder care and other programmes marks the beginning of a months-long debate.
In the end, the growing bipartisan coalition bespeaks most Republicans' willingness to cooperate with Democrats to pass bills that aim to benefit Americans.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider both infrastructure packages when the House returns from the current recess in September.
But for now, there is word Democrats will have to jump so many hurdles in order to get aforementioned 3.5 trillion USD infrastructure package passed in the House next month. The debate over the bill is expected to be months-long. And so much so, Democrats might have no choice but can only go back to the drawing board.
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