Joe Biden wins $US1 trillion infrastructure bill in house, saved by Republicans

The approved measure will fund roads, bridges, rail and expanded broadband access. Thirteen Republicans joined most Democrats in supporting it.

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at an event earlier this year marking Amtrak's 50th anniversary in Philadelphia. Democrats, and some Republicans, have rescued his faltering domestic agenda by passing a giant infrastructure package. Picture: AFP

The US House of Representatives has passed a roughly $US1 trillion ($1.34 trillion) public-works bill, sending to President Joe Biden’s desk a generational investment in roads, bridges and rail that had languished for several months as members of his Democratic Party feuded over the terms of its approval.

Negotiated and approved by a bipartisan group of senators earlier this year, the bill reauthorises existing federal infrastructure programs for five years and pours an additional $US550bn into water projects, expanding access to broadband internet and overhauling the electrical grid, among many other measures.

The measure passed 228-206, with 13 Republicans joining most Democrats to support the legislation. Six progressive Democrats voted against it.

A major piece of Mr Biden’s economic agenda and his vision for making the US more competitive internationally, its passage in the house hands him a bipartisan achievement that presidents of both parties have tried, and failed, to achieve for years.

His sagging poll numbers and Democrats’ recent loss in the gubernatorial race in Virginia had pushed Democrats to muscle the legislation through the finish line this week.

But the effort was circuitous and tortured for house Democrats, whose paper-thin majority repeatedly complicated leadership’s plans for the legislation.

Democrats began on Friday US time planning to approve the infrastructure bill after passing the rest of the party’s priorities in a separate, roughly $US2 trillion education, healthcare and climate package.

Progressive Democrats had demanded that the social-spending legislation first receive a vote in the house, hoping to ensure that centrists who support the public-works bill would also vote for the broader education, healthcare and climate measures.

That design fell apart on Friday, though, as centrist Democrats demanded more time to analyse the cost of the social-spending bill, prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to change tack and bring up the infrastructure bill for a vote.

The sudden pivot surprised progressives, who initially signalled that they were prepared to vote against the public-works bill if it came up on Friday. Mr Biden lobbied the progressives to support the infrastructure bill and prodded the centrists to signal their public support for the education, healthcare and climate legislation.

A group of five centrists released a statement Friday night committing to supporting the social-spending bill after it received a full score from the Congressional Budget Office that was in line with White House estimates of its cost.

“We commit to voting for the Build Back Better Act, in its current form other than technical changes, as expeditiously as we receive fiscal information from the Congressional Budget Office — but in no event later than the week of November 15th,” the group said.

Mr Biden also released a statement on Friday night urging house members to approve the infrastructure bill, assuring them that moderates would support the broader social-policy and climate bill.

Democrats also unanimously approved a rule for debate on the broader social-spending measure early on Saturday as part of the agreement.

“I am urging all members to vote for both the rule for consideration of the Build Back Better Act and final passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill tonight,” Mr Biden said, adding that was he confident the house would pass the social-spending legislation during the week of November 15.

The statements were ultimately enough to secure the votes of progressives, who met for hours on Friday afternoon and evening to chart their next steps.

“We will deliver,” said Representative Ro Khanna of California.

Ms Pelosi didn’t waver in her bid to pass the infrastructure bill on Friday, promising that she could overcome the initial progressive opposition to the vote.

She said the public-works measure would “create good-paying jobs across the country building the infrastructure of our country, with mass transit to help clear the air, with safer bridges for safety for the American people, for broadband to help people communicate better”.

“They are very important, very important to the success of our economy,” she said.

Democrats see both the infrastructure bill and the broader social-spending package as central to their efforts at fighting climate change.

The public-works legislation puts $US65bn toward improving the electrical grid and energy production, $US50bn toward making infrastructure more resilient to cyberattacks and natural disasters and roughly $US7.5bn toward building additional charging stations for electric vehicles.

While they have applauded those measures, progressives have said they are insufficient without the tax subsidies and other measures in the social-spending bill as they pushed for a simultaneous vote on the broader bill.

But the small set of centrist Democrats stuck to their own demand that the nonpartisan CBO render an official estimate of the cost of the legislation before it comes to the house floor. CBO had found that the infrastructure bill — financed by repurposing existing government funds, among other measures — would contribute $US256bn to the deficit over a decade.

Such an analysis can take weeks, pushing back Democrats’ timeline for approving legislation that is expected to also fund a universal prekindergarten program, expand healthcare subsidies and raise taxes on very high-income Americans and corporations, among other steps.

Once it passes the house, though, the social-spending bill would face changes in the Senate, where Democrats control a bare 50-50 majority. Republicans are expected to unanimously oppose it in both chambers.

“There is nothing here but partisan social spending. … This bill will fundamentally change life in America for every citizen, and not in a good way,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican.

Democratic senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a critical vote in the 50-50 Senate, has opposed a paid-leave measure that house Democrats added to the bill this week and raised broader questions about its impact on the deficit and inflation.

The legislation’s immigration measures could also change in the Senate. House Democrats have proposed shielding immigrants who came to the US illegally from deportation for five years and provide a five-year, renewable work authorisation as part of the bill.

That measure could face problems in the Senate’s rules. Democrats are pursuing the legislation through a budgetary manoeuvre that allows them to skirt the 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the Senate. But that manoeuvre, called reconciliation, also places a set of rules on what kind of policies can be passed through the process, and Democrats have abandoned previous immigration proposals after they ran afoul of the Senate’s rules.

The house’s plan to raise the $US10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction to $US80,000 for nine years also faces possible revisions in the Senate because of opposition from some lawmakers.

After the Senate finishes its work on the bill, a process that could take weeks, it would come back to the house for another vote, meaning Democrats could still be working on the legislation until the end of the year.

The Wall Street Journal