Biden Finds a Bipartisan Victory, but Democratic Unity May Prove More Elusive

The Senate’s passage of a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan was vindication of President Biden’s commitment to bipartisanship, but for his larger agenda, he will need Democrats in lock step.

WASHINGTON — The Senate’s passage on Tuesday of a trillion-dollar infrastructure package may have been a vote of confidence for President Biden and his insistence that bipartisanship can still thrive, but there is a far harder task ahead for his agenda: keeping Democrats in lock step. The crosscurrents in the president’s own party have only sharpened since Congress began moving on parallel tracks with two separate legislative efforts. One, a $1 trillion bipartisan measure that the Senate passed Tuesday, would pay for roads, bridges, rail and water systems. The other, a budget blueprint the Senate was expected to pass late Tuesday or early Wednesday, would come together this fall to expand the nation’s social safety net — education, health care, child care and climate change — with Democratic votes only. It will fall to the president to keep his fractious party in line on both efforts moving forward.