WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate unexpectedly suspended a vote to take up a $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Friday, throwing a new hurdle in front of President Joe Biden’s top priority of renovating the nation’s roads and bridges.
Republican Senator John Cornyn said members of his party were concerned how it might affect broadband internet rates. The chamber’s No. 2 Republican, John Thune, said lawmakers might need to see the actual legislative text of the massive package before they could move forward with the vote. That text was not yet complete, other lawmakers said.
Prior to the delay, supporters from both parties predicted it would ultimately reach Biden’s desk to be signed into law.
“We’re going to get this baby across the finish line,” said Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who was part of a bipartisan group that crafted the bill with the White House over months of negotiations.
Lawmakers from both parties have said the bill shows that Washington is capable of working through sharp partisan differences on a package that would boost the economy and improve the U.S. transportation infrastructure.
Senators were scheduled to work through the weekend on the sweeping plan here, which would dramatically increase the nation’s spending on roads, bridges, transit and airports.
The package includes about $550 billion in new spending, on top of $450 billion that was previously approved. It also includes money for eliminating lead water pipes, expanding broadband internet access and electric vehicle infrastructure.
The bill does not include funding for climate change and social initiatives that Democrats aim to pass in a separate $3.5 trillion measure without Republican support.
Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, have been upbeat about prospects for the bill, which cleared an important procedural hurdle by a vote of 67-32 on Wednesday.
“When you have Chuck Schumer and you have Mitch McConnell voting for the same thing in a bill this large, you have a good thing,” Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a key swing vote, said on Friday.
Lawmakers still have not seen the full text of the bill.
Democrats hold razor-thin margins in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, meaning the party must stick together to achieve its legislative goals. Progressive members of the House Democratic caucus have already suggested the $1 trillion package is inadequate.
Biden on Thursday said the separate $3.5 trillion bill should include a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamer” immigrants here who were brought to the United States as children. It was unclear whether that would be possible under the Senate’s complex rules.
Schumer said he plans to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Democratic climate and social spending bill before senators take their summer break, scheduled to start in the second week of August.
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