President Joe Biden signed into law a $1 trillion infrastructure bill at a White House ceremony on Monday. The white House witnessed a rare bipartisan for the signing.

United States: Joe Biden signs $1 TN infrastructure bill into law

On the highway over the Teton Pass in Wyoming, avalanches have been threatening motorists since the 1960s. In Washington and Oregon, drivers live with the daily awareness that, in a major earthquake, the bridge between Vancouver and Portland will probably collapse. In California, residents are increasingly at the mercy of out-of-control wildfires and megadroughts — and their stratospheric costs.

America’s to-do list has been growing for years, since well before President Joe Biden and a bipartisan committee in Congress agreed this year to a historic upgrade of the nation’s aging infrastructure. On Friday, the measure — held up for months amid negotiations over some $2 trillion in other spending — finally passed.

“This is a game changer,” said Mark Poloncarz, the county executive in New York’s Erie County. “Right off the bat, I have somewhere around $150 million in capital projects we could move, from bringing our wastewater treatment system into the 20th century to smaller bridges, some of which are 100 years old.”

Mark Weitenbeck, treasurer of the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers and a retiree from suburban Milwaukee, celebrated the potential expansion of rail service: “While we have been doing nothing, the Chinese have been building 20,000 miles of high-speed rail line.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said in a statement: “President Biden understands the critical need to build a climate-resilient future.” He added that the new funding will “bolster our clean transportation infrastructure, help mitigate some of the worst impacts of climate change, and accelerate new projects that will create thousands of jobs.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the minority leader, had urged Republicans to oppose the bill, and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the minority whip, warned that the spending “is going to induce more inflation.” But 13 House Republicans crossed party lines to help pass the measure.

And Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican and chair of the National Governors Association, commended Congress “for setting aside partisan differences to pass a bill that works for the American people.”

With nearly $600 billion in new federal aid to improve highways, bridges, dams, public transit, rail, ports, airports, water quality and broadband over 10 years, the legislation is a once-in-a-generation chance to overhaul the nation’s public works system. And it offers a rare opportunity for states that for decades have been forced to balance huge short-term backlogs of repairs and upgrades against larger, longer-term projects and needs.

The federal outlay, while less generous than Biden initially proposed, is still immense by any measure. According to the White House, the transportation aid alone is the largest federal investment in transit history and the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak in 1971.

Some $110 billion will be allotted to roads, bridges and other major surface transportation projects. Another $66 billion will go to passenger and freight rail, including enough money to eliminate Amtrak’s maintenance backlog. Yet another $39 billion will modernize public transit, and $11 billion more will be set aside for transportation safety, including programs to reduce fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists.

Broadband systems will get a $65 billion infusion, as will investments to rebuild the electricity grid to refurbish power lines and accommodate renewable energy sources. A $55 billion pool of funds would expand access to clean drinking water. Some $25 billion would go to airports and $17 billion to ports.

Government agencies will determine which projects are funded, but some state priorities were written into the bill during negotiations.

For example, several provisions benefit Alaska, whose Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, was a core member of the bipartisan group of senators who helped hammer out the legislation. Included in the bill is $250 million for a pilot program to develop an electric or low-emitting ferry that would almost certainly go to her state, which has the most miles of marine highway.

Another $1 billion program will pay for a ferry system to reach rural communities such as those in Alaska; the bill allows it to be operated and maintained with federal highway dollars. And other parts of the bill will pay to fix more than 140 bridges, along with more than 300 miles of the highway that stretches across Alaska’s border and into Canada.

West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, also helped draft pieces of the legislation, which includes a $2 billion rural grant program expected to direct funding toward the Appalachian highway system. A stretch of that system, Corridor H — intended to connect Interstate 79 in north-central West Virginia to Interstate 81 in Virginia — has gone unfinished for more than a half-century, but will now get a jump start. The bill also pumps more than $11 billion into a program to clean up toxic leaks from abandoned coal mines, an undertaking estimated to cost at least $2 billion in West Virginia alone.

Mostly, however, the legislation will address public works challenges that have long confounded the political and financial ability of states to address them. Experts predicted that it will reshape priorities across the country and boost critical projects.

New Jersey, for example, could tap the new funds to help construct the proposed Gateway Tunnel, easing chronic congestion on the train route that links the state’s population centers to New York. Nearly a decade after Superstorm Sandy flooded the tunnel to New York, leaving structural damage, progress has stalled amid estimates of up to $13 billion to complete repairs.

Along the Gulf Coast, Louisiana officials are eyeing the money to help speed a long-studied passenger rail route between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In the Pacific Northwest, where the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Oregon and Washington over the Columbia River is at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake, the spending could help settle years of political disagreement and pay for a new, more resilient structure with space for bicycle lanes and pedestrians.

In Michigan, the bill will infuse a record $1 billion into a decade-old program to restore and protect the Great Lakes, where drinking water and wildlife have been compromised by pollution. In Wyoming, where the threat of avalanches annually shuts down Wyoming Highway 22 through the mountains, impeding commercial traffic, it could help fund a tunnel through the Teton Pass.

The legislation also offers a critical lifeline to states and cities struggling to curb greenhouse gas pollution in the face of the escalating disruptions from climate change. In the Northeast, $7.5 billion in funding for zero- and low-emission buses and ferries could help Connecticut and New Jersey to electrify municipal bus fleets. A loan program in the bill also will help local governments in states like Michigan set up projects to reduce the risk and damage from extreme flooding and eroding shorelines.

Other parts of the legislation will address long-standing equity and civic design issues created by old freeway projects, which split many cities, leveled homes and historic landmarks and worsened car dependence and segregation. In Minnesota, it could advance a proposed revamping of the I-94 corridor between St. Paul and Minneapolis, reconnecting neighborhoods that were cut off from one another in the 1960s. And in Connecticut, it could boost projects to help reunite sections of Hartford and East Hartford that were fractured more than 60 years ago by interstates.

Few states, however, are likely to feel the measure’s impact as widely as California, where 40 million people have come to rely on freeways, aqueducts, sea walls, dams and other feats of engineering to maintain their way of life.

Parched by megadrought and scorched by towering wildfires, the state has pumped billions of dollars in recent years into water conservation, forest clearance, firefighting and renewable energy initiatives. Federal money, state officials said, would supercharge that push.

A pot of more than $8 billion for Western water projects, for instance, includes billions for water recycling systems and groundwater storage, critical to California’s conservation efforts. More funding in the bill will help upgrade aging dams and canals and perhaps underwrite desalination projects.

Disaster funds in the measure will help mitigate the danger and impact of wildfires and other natural disasters, allowing the state, for example, to bury power lines in rural areas where sparks from old equipment have set off some of California’s most destructive infernos. Also on tap will be federal funding to bring the pay of federal wildland firefighters into parity with the state’s far better paid fire crews, addressing critical shortages of experienced crews in a state where most of the forested wilderness is on federal land.

The new federal money could deliver a boost, as well, to the high-speed rail line that California has been trying for a decade to construct between its largest cities and its rural Central Valley. In recent years, the priority has been merely to complete an electrified route between Merced and Bakersfield. But with additional funding, state officials say they could expand to the Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin, connecting one of the state’s most economically depressed regions to major cities and better-paying jobs.

One small part of the measure, however, has been especially anticipated in California: a $7.5 billion initiative to build a nationwide network of chargers for electric vehicles. Although 40% of the electric vehicles in the nation are sold in California, sales still lag in part because car buyers fear they will be unable to easily recharge on long car trips. So far, even electric vehicles with long ranges — Teslas, for instance — lack the power to make the 400-mile journey between San Francisco and Los Angeles without stopping for a charge.

On the highway over the Teton Pass in Wyoming, avalanches have been threatening motorists since the 1960s. In Washington and Oregon, drivers live with the daily awareness that, in a major earthquake, the bridge between Vancouver and Portland will probably collapse.

On the highway over the Teton Pass in Wyoming, avalanches have been threatening motorists since the 1960s. In Washington and Oregon, drivers live with the daily awareness that, in a major earthquake, the bridge between Vancouver and Portland will probably collapse. In California, residents are increasingly at the mercy of out-of-control wildfires and megadroughts — and their stratospheric costs. America’s to-do list has been growing for years, since well before President Joe Biden and a bipartisan committee in Congress agreed this year to a historic upgrade of the nation’s aging infrastructure. On Friday, the measure — held up for months amid negotiations over some $2 trillion in other spending — finally passed. “This is a game changer,” said Mark Poloncarz, the county executive in New York’s Erie County. “Right off the bat, I have somewhere around $150 million in capital projects we could move, from bringing our wastewater treatment system into the 20th century to smaller bridges, some of which are 100 years old.” Mark Weitenbeck, treasurer of the Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers and a retiree from suburban Milwaukee, celebrated the potential expansion of rail service: “While we have been doing nothing, the Chinese have been building 20,000 miles of high-speed rail line.” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said in a statement: “President Biden understands the critical need to build a climate-resilient future.” He added that the new funding will “bolster our clean transportation infrastructure, help mitigate some of the worst impacts of climate change, and accelerate new projects that will create thousands of jobs.” Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the minority leader, had urged Republicans to oppose the bill, and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the minority whip, warned that the spending “is going to induce more inflation.” But 13 House Republicans crossed party lines to help pass the measure. And Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican and chair of the National Governors Association, commended Congress “for setting aside partisan differences to pass a bill that works for the American people.” With nearly $600 billion in new federal aid to improve highways, bridges, dams, public transit, rail, ports, airports, water quality and broadband over 10 years, the legislation is a once-in-a-generation chance to overhaul the nation’s public works system. And it offers a rare opportunity for states that for decades have been forced to balance huge short-term backlogs of repairs and upgrades against larger, longer-term projects and needs. The federal outlay, while less generous than Biden initially proposed, is still immense by any measure. According to the White House, the transportation aid alone is the largest federal investment in transit history and the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak in 1971. Some $110 billion will be allotted to roads, bridges and other major surface transportation projects. Another $66 billion will go to passenger and freight rail, including enough money to eliminate Amtrak’s maintenance backlog. Yet another $39 billion will modernize public transit, and $11 billion more will be set aside for transportation safety, including programs to reduce fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists. Broadband systems will get a $65 billion infusion, as will investments to rebuild the electricity grid to refurbish power lines and accommodate renewable energy sources. A $55 billion pool of funds would expand access to clean drinking water. Some $25 billion would go to airports and $17 billion to ports. Government agencies will determine which projects are funded, but some state priorities were written into the bill during negotiations. For example, several provisions benefit Alaska, whose Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, was a core member of the bipartisan group of senators who helped hammer out the legislation. Included in the bill is $250 million for a pilot program to develop an electric or low-emitting ferry that would almost certainly go to her state, which has the most miles of marine highway. Another $1 billion program will pay for a ferry system to reach rural communities such as those in Alaska; the bill allows it to be operated and maintained with federal highway dollars. And other parts of the bill will pay to fix more than 140 bridges, along with more than 300 miles of the highway that stretches across Alaska’s border and into Canada. West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, and Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, also helped draft pieces of the legislation, which includes a $2 billion rural grant program expected to direct funding toward the Appalachian highway system. A stretch of that system, Corridor H — intended to connect Interstate 79 in north-central West Virginia to Interstate 81 in Virginia — has gone unfinished for more than a half-century, but will now get a jump start. The bill also pumps more than $11 billion into a program to clean up toxic leaks from abandoned coal mines, an undertaking estimated to cost at least $2 billion in West Virginia alone. Mostly, however, the legislation will address public works challenges that have long confounded the political and financial ability of states to address them. Experts predicted that it will reshape priorities across the country and boost critical projects. New Jersey, for example, could tap the new funds to help construct the proposed Gateway Tunnel, easing chronic congestion on the train route that links the state’s population centers to New York. Nearly a decade after Superstorm Sandy flooded the tunnel to New York, leaving structural damage, progress has stalled amid estimates of up to $13 billion to complete repairs. Along the Gulf Coast, Louisiana officials are eyeing the money to help speed a long-studied passenger rail route between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In the Pacific Northwest, where the Interstate 5 bridge connecting Oregon and Washington over the Columbia River is at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake, the spending could help settle years of political disagreement and pay for a new, more resilient structure with space for bicycle lanes and pedestrians. In Michigan, the bill will infuse a record $1 billion into a decade-old program to restore and protect the Great Lakes, where drinking water and wildlife have been compromised by pollution. In Wyoming, where the threat of avalanches annually shuts down Wyoming Highway 22 through the mountains, impeding commercial traffic, it could help fund a tunnel through the Teton Pass. The legislation also offers a critical lifeline to states and cities struggling to curb greenhouse gas pollution in the face of the escalating disruptions from climate change. In the Northeast, $7.5 billion in funding for zero- and low-emission buses and ferries could help Connecticut and New Jersey to electrify municipal bus fleets. A loan program in the bill also will help local governments in states like Michigan set up projects to reduce the risk and damage from extreme flooding and eroding shorelines. Other parts of the legislation will address long-standing equity and civic design issues created by old freeway projects, which split many cities, leveled homes and historic landmarks and worsened car dependence and segregation. In Minnesota, it could advance a proposed revamping of the I-94 corridor between St. Paul and Minneapolis, reconnecting neighborhoods that were cut off from one another in the 1960s. And in Connecticut, it could boost projects to help reunite sections of Hartford and East Hartford that were fractured more than 60 years ago by interstates. Few states, however, are likely to feel the measure’s impact as widely as California, where 40 million people have come to rely on freeways, aqueducts, sea walls, dams and other feats of engineering to maintain their way of life. Parched by megadrought and scorched by towering wildfires, the state has pumped billions of dollars in recent years into water conservation, forest clearance, firefighting and renewable energy initiatives. Federal money, state officials said, would supercharge that push. A pot of more than $8 billion for Western water projects, for instance, includes billions for water recycling systems and groundwater storage, critical to California’s conservation efforts. More funding in the bill will help upgrade aging dams and canals and perhaps underwrite desalination projects. Disaster funds in the measure will help mitigate the danger and impact of wildfires and other natural disasters, allowing the state, for example, to bury power lines in rural areas where sparks from old equipment have set off some of California’s most destructive infernos. Also on tap will be federal funding to bring the pay of federal wildland firefighters into parity with the state’s far better paid fire crews, addressing critical shortages of experienced crews in a state where most of the forested wilderness is on federal land. The new federal money could deliver a boost, as well, to the high-speed rail line that California has been trying for a decade to construct between its largest cities and its rural Central Valley. In recent years, the priority has been merely to complete an electrified route between Merced and Bakersfield. But with additional funding, state officials say they could expand to the Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin, connecting one of the state’s most economically depressed regions to major cities and better-paying jobs. One small part of the measure, however, has been especially anticipated in California: a $7.5 billion initiative to build a nationwide network of chargers for electric vehicles. Although 40% of the electric vehicles in the nation are sold in California, sales still lag in part because car buyers fear they will be unable to easily recharge on long car trips. So far, even electric vehicles with long ranges — Teslas, for instance — lack the power to make the 400-mile journey between San Francisco and Los Angeles without stopping for a charge.

This is where the States want billions in infrastructure funding spent

The US Senate approved <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden's</a> historic $1.2 trillion&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;plan on Tuesday, paving the way for a major victory to the president if it wins final passage in the lower chamber&nbsp;of Congress.

Some seven weeks after the Democratic leader stood with senators from both parties hailing a preliminary agreement to fix the nation's roads, bridges, ports and internet connections, the deal arrived on the Senate floor needing just a simple majority to pass.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-backed-12-trillion-infrastructure-bill-passes-key-hurdle-404062">Biden-backed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passes key hurdle</a>

In the event, the package received rare bipartisan support among Washington's highly-polarized political elite, passing by 69 votes to 30 after winning the backing of a third of Republicans.

The measure now faces a make-or-break vote in the House of Representatives in the coming weeks, where its future is less certain as divisions have sprung up in the Democratic majority.

Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer credited Biden for winning approval of "the first major&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;package in over a decade on a bipartisan basis" after just seven months in office.

"It's been a long and winding road, but we have persisted," Schumer said. "The American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;in decades."

The ambitious plan provides for $550 billion in new federal spending on transport&nbsp;infrastructure, but also for high-speed internet and efforts to fight climate change.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/us-senate-in-rare-saturday-session-on-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-402098">US Senate in rare Saturday session on $1 trillion infrastructure bill</a>

The total price tag of the package, the equivalent of Spain's 2020 gross domestic product,&nbsp;relies on other public funds that already have been appropriated.

The passage looks less certain in the House of Representatives, however, where rifts have emerged within the narrow Democratic majority between the progressive and moderate wings.&nbsp;

Negotiations are likely to be drawn out, and a final vote in Congress may not come until the fall.

In a deeply divided Washington, the&nbsp;bill's approval would mark a resounding victory for Biden, a former senator who touts his ability to reach across the aisle.&nbsp;

Sweeping domestic agenda&nbsp;

The package is a primary element of Biden's sweeping domestic agenda aimed at transforming the United States with more than $4 trillion in federal spending.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/acknowledging-disagreements-biden-and-merkel-signal-warmer-us-german-ties-398544">Acknowledging disagreements, Biden and Merkel signal warmer US-German ties</a>

Democrats now are working on the next stage: a go-it-alone, $3.5 trillion budget framework that includes major investments in health, education, tackling climate change and expanding social welfare programs.

The budget resolution "will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since (president Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and the New Deal of the 1930s," independent Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Budget Committee, said this week.&nbsp;

Democratic leaders intend to use a fast-track process known as reconciliation that allows budget-related legislation to pass by simple majority.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-senate-agrees-on-trillion-dollar-infrastructure-package-401313/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

With Republicans united against the broader budget&nbsp;bill, every Senate Democrat would need to support the package.

Biden has urged Congress to deliver on his priorities, saying in July that "we can't afford not to make these investments."

Making a last-minute plea for passage of the bipartisan&nbsp;bill&nbsp;over the weekend, the president tweeted that it represented a "historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation's&nbsp;infrastructure."

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. It will create good-paying, union jobs repairing our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, and building energy transmission lines. 
 
We can’t afford not to do it.
— President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1424025037829464068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Former Republican president Donald Trump however called it a "disgrace," noting the victory it would hand Biden, and threatened political reprisals against Republicans who voted for it.

In the wake of that threat, three Republican senators who participated in the&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;negotiations announced they would not vote to support for the plan, one of whom was absent from the session.&nbsp;

But top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted for it, aware of the program's huge popularity among voters tired of historic neglect of the nation's highways.&nbsp;

The US Senate approved Joe Biden's historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan on Tuesday, paving the way for a major victory to the president if it wins final passage in the lower chamber of Congress.

The US Senate approved Joe Biden's historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan on Tuesday, paving the way for a major victory to the president if it wins final passage in the lower chamber of Congress. Some seven weeks after the Democratic leader stood with senators from both parties hailing a preliminary agreement to fix the nation's roads, bridges, ports and internet connections, the deal arrived on the Senate floor needing just a simple majority to pass. Also read | Biden-backed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passes key hurdle In the event, the package received rare bipartisan support among Washington's highly-polarized political elite, passing by 69 votes to 30 after winning the backing of a third of Republicans. The measure now faces a make-or-break vote in the House of Representatives in the coming weeks, where its future is less certain as divisions have sprung up in the Democratic majority. Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer credited Biden for winning approval of "the first major infrastructure package in over a decade on a bipartisan basis" after just seven months in office. "It's been a long and winding road, but we have persisted," Schumer said. "The American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades." The ambitious plan provides for $550 billion in new federal spending on transport infrastructure, but also for high-speed internet and efforts to fight climate change. Also read | US Senate in rare Saturday session on $1 trillion infrastructure bill The total price tag of the package, the equivalent of Spain's 2020 gross domestic product, relies on other public funds that already have been appropriated. The passage looks less certain in the House of Representatives, however, where rifts have emerged within the narrow Democratic majority between the progressive and moderate wings. Negotiations are likely to be drawn out, and a final vote in Congress may not come until the fall. In a deeply divided Washington, the bill's approval would mark a resounding victory for Biden, a former senator who touts his ability to reach across the aisle. Sweeping domestic agenda The package is a primary element of Biden's sweeping domestic agenda aimed at transforming the United States with more than $4 trillion in federal spending. Also read | Acknowledging disagreements, Biden and Merkel signal warmer US-German ties Democrats now are working on the next stage: a go-it-alone, $3.5 trillion budget framework that includes major investments in health, education, tackling climate change and expanding social welfare programs. The budget resolution "will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since (president Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and the New Deal of the 1930s," independent Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Budget Committee, said this week. Democratic leaders intend to use a fast-track process known as reconciliation that allows budget-related legislation to pass by simple majority. With Republicans united against the broader budget bill, every Senate Democrat would need to support the package. Biden has urged Congress to deliver on his priorities, saying in July that "we can't afford not to make these investments." Making a last-minute plea for passage of the bipartisan bill over the weekend, the president tweeted that it represented a "historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation's infrastructure." The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. It will create good-paying, union jobs repairing our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, and building energy transmission lines. We can’t afford not to do it. — President Biden (@POTUS) August 7, 2021 × Former Republican president Donald Trump however called it a "disgrace," noting the victory it would hand Biden, and threatened political reprisals against Republicans who voted for it. In the wake of that threat, three Republican senators who participated in the infrastructure negotiations announced they would not vote to support for the plan, one of whom was absent from the session. But top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted for it, aware of the program's huge popularity among voters tired of historic neglect of the nation's highways.

US Senate passes Biden's massive infrastructure bill

In a rare example of bipartisanship in Washington, a $1.2 trillion bill aimed at improving the US' roads, highways, bridges, and high-speed internet gained the support of 18 Republican senators and 49 Democratic senators.

With the addition of Republican senators to Democrats, on Saturday, the&nbsp;massive infrastructure bill&nbsp;passed a key procedural hurdle, ensuring its final passage in the upper chamber.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/business-economy/us-senate-in-rare-saturday-session-on-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-402098">US Senate in rare Saturday session on $1 trillion infrastructure bill</a>

Republicans including Mitch McConnell, the party's Senate leader, supported the measure which was&nbsp;deemed historic by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">US President Joe Biden</a>.

The bill needs 51 votes to clear senate passage. So, Saturday's vote greatly boosts its chances for passage, although fierce amendment arguments continue.

A second procedural step must be fulfilled before the bill can go to a final vote. The timing of this remained uncertain on Saturday evening, with the vote to be picked up again on Sunday.&nbsp;

The bill, which has been in development for months, calls for $550 billion in new federal spending to help the nation's ageing infrastructure, as well as to address climate change.

Totalling $1.2 trillion, the price tag equates to the 2020 GDP of Spain. This includes funds already approved but not yet spent.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/acknowledging-disagreements-biden-and-merkel-signal-warmer-us-german-ties-398544">Acknowledging disagreements, Biden and Merkel signal warmer US-German ties</a>

Making a last-minute plea for passage, Biden tweeted Saturday that the bill represented a "historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation's infrastructure."&nbsp;

"We can't afford not to do it," he added.&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. It will create good-paying, union jobs repairing our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, and building energy transmission lines. 
 
We can’t afford not to do it.
— President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1424025037829464068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
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Vice President Kamala Harris was also dispatched by Biden to Capitol Hill to shore up support for the bill.

The plan will move forward if approved by the Senate.&nbsp;

Next, it will go to the House of Representatives, where it is not guaranteed to pass. Democrats hold a slim majority there, and the liberal and centrist wings of the party have clashed over the bill's content.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/on-infrastructure-biden-tests-the-limits-of-having-it-both-ways-393986">On infrastructure, Biden tests the limits of having it both ways</a>

Final passage by both houses would represent a major victory for the Democratic president, who has been betting his political legacy on economic recovery,&nbsp;as well as fighting the destruction caused by <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">COVID-19</a>.

The Republican predecessor of Biden, Donald Trump, called the legislation "a disgrace" in a statement on Saturday.

While in office, Trump was unable to bring an infrastructure bill to passage. He&nbsp;stated that it was "very hard" for him to "endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal."&nbsp;&nbsp;

His position could make a final vote more problematic for Republicans looking ahead to the 2022 midterm elections.

In light of the 2022 midterm elections, his position could prove to be problematic during the final vote.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/white-house-lawmakers-strike-deal-on-infrastructure-393877">White House, lawmakers strike deal on infrastructure</a>

Despite this, Republicans know that the spending contained in the bill is very popular with voters.

(With inputs from agencies)

In a rare example of bipartisanship in Washington, a $1.2 trillion bill aimed at improving the US' roads, highways, bridges, and high-speed internet gained the support of 18 Republican senators and 49 Democratic senators.

In a rare example of bipartisanship in Washington, a $1.2 trillion bill aimed at improving the US' roads, highways, bridges, and high-speed internet gained the support of 18 Republican senators and 49 Democratic senators. With the addition of Republican senators to Democrats, on Saturday, the massive infrastructure bill passed a key procedural hurdle, ensuring its final passage in the upper chamber. Also read | US Senate in rare Saturday session on $1 trillion infrastructure bill Republicans including Mitch McConnell, the party's Senate leader, supported the measure which was deemed historic by US President Joe Biden. The bill needs 51 votes to clear senate passage. So, Saturday's vote greatly boosts its chances for passage, although fierce amendment arguments continue. A second procedural step must be fulfilled before the bill can go to a final vote. The timing of this remained uncertain on Saturday evening, with the vote to be picked up again on Sunday. The bill, which has been in development for months, calls for $550 billion in new federal spending to help the nation's ageing infrastructure, as well as to address climate change. Totalling $1.2 trillion, the price tag equates to the 2020 GDP of Spain. This includes funds already approved but not yet spent. Also read | Acknowledging disagreements, Biden and Merkel signal warmer US-German ties Making a last-minute plea for passage, Biden tweeted Saturday that the bill represented a "historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation's infrastructure." "We can't afford not to do it," he added. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure. It will create good-paying, union jobs repairing our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, and building energy transmission lines. We can’t afford not to do it. — President Biden (@POTUS) August 7, 2021 × Vice President Kamala Harris was also dispatched by Biden to Capitol Hill to shore up support for the bill. The plan will move forward if approved by the Senate. Next, it will go to the House of Representatives, where it is not guaranteed to pass. Democrats hold a slim majority there, and the liberal and centrist wings of the party have clashed over the bill's content. Also read | On infrastructure, Biden tests the limits of having it both ways Final passage by both houses would represent a major victory for the Democratic president, who has been betting his political legacy on economic recovery, as well as fighting the destruction caused by COVID-19. The Republican predecessor of Biden, Donald Trump, called the legislation "a disgrace" in a statement on Saturday. While in office, Trump was unable to bring an infrastructure bill to passage. He stated that it was "very hard" for him to "endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal." His position could make a final vote more problematic for Republicans looking ahead to the 2022 midterm elections. In light of the 2022 midterm elections, his position could prove to be problematic during the final vote. Also read | White House, lawmakers strike deal on infrastructure Despite this, Republicans know that the spending contained in the bill is very popular with voters. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden-backed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passes key hurdle

The entire U.S. economy, all $20 trillion of it, relies heavily on our infrastructure in one way or another, through transportation, power grids, high-speed internet, ports, roads, and bridges.

Senate finalises trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure deal

US President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators announced that they’d reached a framework $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. Senators agreed on a $973 billion package over five years with $559 billion in new funding.

Joe Biden agrees to $1.2 trillion infra deal with bipartisan backing

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