A bipartisan group of senators negotiating a broad infrastructure deal has reached accord on a plan, the top Republican negotiator said, and debate could begin in the full chamber as early as Wednesday night.
“We now have an agreement on the major issues,” Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman said after meeting with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
A Democratic aide confirmed a deal had been struck. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York sounded an optimistic tone on the Senate floor, saying the chamber could hold a procedural vote on the deal as early as Wednesday night.
“Senators continue to make good progress on both tracks of legislation,” Schumer said, referring to the infrastructure package and a separate, Democrats-only budget bill that incorporates much of President Joe Biden’s social-spending agenda. “Members should be prepared to vote again on cloture on the motion to proceed to the bipartisan infrastructure bill as early as tonight.”
Schumer’s statements came as Republican negotiators huddled in McConnell’s office.
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said he is “confident we will be able to get this across the finish line.”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said it wasn’t too early for Schumer to schedule vote to begin debate.
“I am certainly planning on voting for it, and I think that there is a strong solid number of folks on both sides of the aisle that want to get on to an infrastructure package,” Murkowski said, while flagging that many colleagues hadn’t yet “ been read into it.”
The Senate this week also has to deal with a more than $2 billion emergency spending bill to pay for security costs at the U.S. Capitol stemming from the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump and resettling Afghan nationals who assisted American forces.
It has to pass the House and Senate by the end of the week to prevent cutbacks for both the Capitol Police and the National Guard. It would take just one senator’s objection to slow down consideration of the bill for days, however.
