A Big — but Partial — Win for Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters at the White House in Washington
EVELYN HOCKSTEIN
By Yuval Rosenberg

Tuesday was a landmark day — and not
because Lionel Messi
headed to Paris or Mountain Dew said it would be
rolling out
spiked versions. And no, we’re not talking about
Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’
topping a billion views on YouTube, either.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would resign, and on the fiscal
front, the Senate finally passed the bipartisan
infrastructure bill — and immediately turned to an even bigger
spending plan. Here’s what you need to know.

Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, Delivering a
Bipartisan Win for Biden

Following months of negotiations between lawmakers and the White
House, the Senate passed a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure
package Tuesday, handing President Joe Biden a major but still
tentative win on his ambitious economic agenda. The vote on the
bill was 69-30, with all Democrats and 19 Republicans supporting
the legislation.

The bill now moves to the House, where its fate is subject both
to the competing demands of a fractious Democratic caucus and to
the uncertain progress of the $3.5 trillion budget bill now under
debate in the Senate. In a process that could take months to play
out, Democrats plan to pass both bills at the same time, with the
goal of increasing federal spending by roughly $4 trillion over a
decade on a wide variety of public investments, ranging from roads
and bridges to education and health care.

What’s in the infrastructure package: As a reminder, the
bill includes $550 billion in new spending over five years.

The largest outlay in the bill is $110 billion for building and
repairing roads and bridges. Railroads would receive $66 billion
for upgrades and maintenance, though, to the disappointment of
some, there is no money for high-speed rail. The power grid would
get $65 billion to enhance "reliability and resiliency," while
another $65 billion would go toward expanding broadband service and
access. The water delivery system would get $55 billion, public
transportation $39 billion, and airports $25 billion. (For more
details, see
The Washington Post,
The New York Times or
Reuters.)

The new spending is partially offset by repurposing unspent
coronavirus funds and more stringent enforcement of taxes on
cryptocurrency investment profits, among other financing
mechanisms. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill
would add $256 billion to deficits over 10 years.

The GOP yes votes: The 19 Republicans voting for the bill
were Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelley
Moore Capito of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan
Collins of Maine, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Mike Crapo of
Idaho, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina,
Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Lisa Murkowski
of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, James Risch of Idaho, Mitt Romney
of Utah, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and
Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

What people are saying: Here’s a roundup of reactions to
the passage of the bill.

* Infrastructure week finally arrives: "A
once-in-a-generation vote on U.S. infrastructure means it might
finally be time to stop talking about infrastructure – or think
more creatively about what the word means," says Gina Chon of

Reuters Breakingviews. "The arrival at last of a
much-touted infrastructure week is a good time to start rethinking
America’s too-rigid distinction between economic hardware and
software. Even before the pandemic, the labor market was tight, and
the U.S. population was aging. Birth rates in 2020 were the lowest
since 1979. If infrastructure is a priority, anything that gets
more output out of Americans deserves the label."

* A win for bipartisan cooperation: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema
(D-AZ), a lead negotiator for Democrats, celebrated the cooperation
across the aisle that helped produce the bill: "Rarely does federal
legislation directly address issues that matter to all our
constituents. How many times have we heard in recent months that
bipartisanship isn’t possible anymore?"

President Biden also celebrated the spirit of bipartisanship, in
addition to the long-term economic benefits. "This bill’s going to
help make a historic recovery a long-term boom,"
he said at the White House. "Folks, above all,
this historic investment in infrastructure is what I believe you,
the American people, want — what you’ve been asking for a long,
long time. This bill shows that we can work together."

* A historic level of funding: "The legislation would be
the largest infusion of federal investment into infrastructure
projects in more than a decade, touching nearly every facet of the
American economy and fortifying the nation’s response to the
warming of the planet," says
The New York Times’ Emily Cochrane. "It would
provide historic levels of funding for the modernization of the
nation’s power grid and projects to better manage climate risks, as
well as pour hundreds of billions of dollars into the repair and
replacement of aging public works projects."

* Reversing a trend: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said
the bill would help reverse a long-running failure to invest in the
country: "With this morning’s vote, the Senate has not only begun
the largest modernization of American infrastructure since
Eisenhower built the Interstate System; it has also taken an
important step towards correcting a decades-long pattern of
underinvestment.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce agreed: "Our elected leaders are on
the precipice of a historic investment in our nation’s crumbling
infrastructure," the group said in a statement. "Turning this
long-overdue promise into a reality will grow our economy and
strengthen our competitiveness for decades to come. We applaud the
Senate for doing its job on a bipartisan basis, thoughtfully
debating and passing much-needed infrastructure legislation that
will finally invest in America’s roads, bridges, and other critical
infrastructure, create millions of jobs, and improve the quality of
life for every American."

* Impact will be felt quickly: Saying the infrastructure
plan would be a "big step forward" for the country, U.S. Commerce
Secretary Gina Raimondo promised a rapid turnaround if and when the
bill is signed into law: "We have many shovel-ready projects. We
know that we have to start laying fiber to connect everybody to
broadband. So Americans will feel it within a matter of months
certainly."

* Though projects could take years: The spending in the
bills could take years to have full effect, say
The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Michael
Laris. "Substantial pots of funding are likely to be
quickly disbursed, particularly for updating existing projects,
such as repaving the nation’s roads" they write. "But major public
works projects often have to go through a lengthy process — from
federal agency to locality to private builder — and may not result
in new usable infrastructure for years."

* The bill was watered down:
The American Prospect’s David Dayen notes that the
final bill falls far short of the vision laid out by President
Biden when he was running for office: "The result shows the power,
in a 50-50 Senate, of a small group of centrists sticking together
to force through their priorities. Dozens of amendment votes
changed very little about the overall package ... And yet
ultimately, it’s one of those pieces of legislation that can
simultaneously be called the biggest boost to infrastructure in
U.S. history and a modest effort at the same time. A one-time boost
of investment in physical infrastructure is welcome and should be
cherished. But many of the ambitions President Biden had in his
initial infrastructure proposal cannot be realized through this
effort."

Senate Kicks Off Vote-a-Rama as It Prepares
to Pass Dems' $3.5 Billion Budget Blueprint

After passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the Senate on
Tuesday immediately turned to consideration of Democrats’ $3.5
trillion budget blueprint, which would unlock the fast-track
process Biden and party leaders want to use to pass the rest of
their economic agenda without Republican support.

The Democratic package is expected to include funding for health
care, child care, education and social programs that collectively
would represent the largest expansion of the social safety net in
decades. Democrats are looking to finance those programs by
increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.

The Senate process for the budget resolution requires a
"vote-a-rama," or a marathon series of votes on a potentially
unlimited number of amendments.

This is the Senate’s third such marathon this year, after the
Senate voted on 41 amendments during a February vote-a-rama and 37
amendments during a March session, according to The New York
Times.

This time, Republicans have slammed the Democratic budget plan
as a "tax and spending extravaganza" and they’ll be looking to make
the process painful for Democrats by again forcing dozens of
messaging votes on politically sensitive amendments. Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that the GOP
has hundreds of amendments prepared. "We're going to argue it out
right here on the floor at some length. Every single senator will
be going on record over and over and over," he said.

The bottom line: "Only one vote really
matters," writes The Times's Cochrane. "If all 50 Democrats and
Democratic-leaning independents give final approval to the
blueprint, Senate committees can begin work this fall on the most
significant expansion of the safety net since the 1960s, knowing
that legislation cannot be filibustered under the Senate’s
complicated budget rules."

Number of the Day: 3.4 Million

In July, roughly 3.4 million unemployed people in the U.S.
had been jobless for more than six months, CNBC’s Greg Iacurci

writes Tuesday. That means that about 40% of the
country’s unemployed workers have been out of work for more than
half a year. While the number has been falling, it is still 2.3
million higher than it was in February 2020, just before the
Covid-19 pandemic began to take its toll.

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