US Senate Adopts $1 Trillion Infrastructure Package

The U.S. Senate, in a rare bipartisan vote of approval in politically fractious Washington, adopted Tuesday a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to fix the country’s deteriorating roads and bridges and expand broadband internet service.

The 69-to-30 vote for the measure, one of the biggest U.S. public works efforts in years, sends the legislation to the House of Representatives for consideration in September. House passage is less certain, with some progressive Democrats saying the total spending is too little. The White House supports the package, one of the cornerstones of President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. It’s an attempt by him to show voters that Republican and Democratic lawmakers can agree on major legislation at a time when they are divided on numerous other issues, including taxation, immigration policies, social welfare spending and more. On the final vote, 19 of the 50 Republicans in the Senate joined all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to approve the legislation. Republicans who supported it ignored pleas from former president Donald Trump to vote against it, even though Trump while in office supported an even bigger infrastructure package that never came to fruition.