WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Tuesday approved a long-awaited infrastructure Bill, after months of strenuous negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.
In a rare stroke of bipartisanship, more than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats to back the legislation. The final vote was 69-30, comfortably surpassing the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation in the 100-seat upper chamber, Xinhua reported.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor before the vote that this was a “decades overdue” step to revitalise the country’s crumbling infrastructure, calling it the “most robust injection of funds” into infrastructure in decades.
In late March, US President Joe Biden unveiled a roughly $2 trillion infrastructure plan, but it was criticised by Republicans, who argued it was not targeted on infrastructure and cost too much.
After months of negotiations, the White House and a bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes $550 billion in new spending on infrastructure projects.
The new spending would fund projects such as roads, bridges, passenger rails, drinking water and waste water systems. The rest of the package involves previously approved spending. – Bernama
