Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Infrastructure

Yes Sinema isn't being clear at all exactly what her opposition is. Unfortunately the impression I get of her is that she likes being a "maverick" and the attention she gets from keeping people guessing.

That said I don't believe she really is a Republican in disguise and that she's going to become a Trumpist. She voted to impeach Trump twice including for both of the articles of impeachment the first time around. From the party standpoint she's already cast her most important vote which is Schumer as majority leader.

It's a frequent tactic to assume that those who oppose you that they are only doing so out of corrupt reasons. Manchin comes from a deep red state that has been dependent on coal. It isn't a conflict or corruption that he might oppose measures that reduce dependence on coal. That is what his constituents want. I know less about Sinema and again she's not making it clear what she opposes. There are though valid reasons to be concerned about continued vast amounts of new spending. While no party takes the debt seriously anymore doesn't mean that there aren't potential problems from it. At the same time tax policy rarely survives much beyond the term of COngress that passed it. If that was the case then we still would've had the mandate for the ACA.

 

Many seem to be treating the Bipartisan Bill as meaningless and that it would be a failure if that was the only thing passed. Here is again what is that bill:
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/infrastructure-bill-explained/index.html
Funding for roads and bridges
The deal calls for investing $110 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, according to the summary. That's about the same amount agreed to in a bipartisan bill in June but significantly less than the $159 billion that Biden initially requested in the American Jobs Plan.
Included is $40 billion for bridge repair, replacement and rehabilitation, according to the bill text. The White House says it would be the single, largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system, which started in the 1950s.
The deal also contains $16 billion for major projects that would be too large or complex for traditional funding programs, according to the White House.
Some 20%, or 173,000 miles, of the nation's highways and major roads are in poor condition, as are 45,000 bridges, according to the White House.
The investments would focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.
Also included in the package is $11 billion for transportation safety, including a program to help states and localities reduce crashes and fatalities, especially of cyclists and pedestrians, according to the White House. It would direct funding to highway, truck and pipelines and hazardous materials safety efforts.
And it contains $1 billion to reconnect communities, disproportionately Black neighborhoods, that were divided by highways and other infrastructure, according to the White House. It will fund planning, design, demolition and reconstruction of street grids, parks or other infrastructure.
Money for transit and rail
The package would provide $39 billion to modernize public transit, according to the bill text. That's less than the $49 billion contained in the earlier bipartisan deal and the $85 billion that Biden initially wanted to invest in modernizing transit systems and help them expand to meet rider demand.

The funds would repair and upgrade existing infrastructure, make stations accessible to all users, bring transit service to new communities and modernize rail and bus fleets, including replacing thousands of vehicles with zero-emission models, according to the White House.
The deal would also invest $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, according to the bill text. The funds would eliminate Amtrak's maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor line and bring rail service to areas outside the northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, according to the White House. Included in the package is $12 billion in partnership grants for intercity rail service, including high-speed rail.
The funding is the same as in bipartisan framework but less than the $80 billion Biden originally wanted to send to Amtrak, which he relied upon for decades to get home to Delaware from Washington, DC.
It would be the largest federal investment in public transit in history and in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak 50 years ago, according to the White House.
Broadband upgrade
The bill would provide a $65 billion investment in improving the nation's broadband infrastructure, according to the bill text.
Biden initially wanted to invest $100 billion in broadband.
It also aims to help lower the price households pay for internet service by requiring federal funding recipients to offer a low-cost affordable plan, by creating price transparency and by boosting competition in areas where existing providers aren't providing adequate service. It would also create a permanent federal program to help more low-income households access the internet, according to the White House fact sheet.
Upgrading airports, ports and waterways
The deal would invest $17 billion in port infrastructure and $25 billion in airports to address repair and maintenance backlogs, reduce congestion and emissions near ports and airports and promote electrification and other low-carbon technologies, according to the White House.
It is similar to the funding in the bipartisan deal and Biden's original proposal.
Electric vehicles
The bill would provide $7.5 billion for zero- and low-emission buses and ferries, aiming to deliver thousands of electric school buses to districts across the country, according to the White House.
Another $7.5 billion would go to building a nationwide network of plug-in electric vehicle chargers, according to the bill text.
Improving power and water systems
The bill would invest $65 billion to rebuild the electric grid, according to the White House. It calls for building thousands of miles of new power lines and expanding renewable energy, the White House said.
It would provide $55 billion to upgrade water infrastructure, according to the bill text. It would replace lead service lines and pipes so that communities have access to clean drinking water, the White House said.
Another $50 billion would go toward making the system more resilient -- protecting it from drought, floods and cyber attacks, the White House said.
Environmental remediation
The bill would provide $21 billion to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land and cap orphaned gas wells, according to the White House.
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Again this is a HUGE bill that addresses many needs of this country. It certainly doesn't address all needs but there will always be needs to be addressed.

Given that this bill has already passed overwhelmingly one chamber of Congress yet is being tied to a bill that is still being written the stakes aren't how much is spent on infrastructure but whether this Congress can pass an infrastructure bill at all.

 

Woke up this morning to the great news that the House has finally done the right thing and gotten the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passed!
This bill will do a lot for many Americans and has many things that Progressives have been pushing for. With several Republicans voting for it it is one of those increasingly rare times that shows that both parties. can come together and do something.

This is a win for Biden, Democrats and Republicans but most of all this is a needed win for this country that will both in the near term and long term greatly benefit many Americans.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/05/politics/house-votes-infrastructure-build-back-better/index.html
Congress passes $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, delivering major win for Biden
By Annie Grayer, Manu Raju and Clare Foran, CNN

Updated 10:01 AM ET, Sat November 6, 2021

(CNN)Congress has passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, delivering on a major pillar of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda after months of internal deliberations and painstaking divisions among Democrats.

The final vote was 228-206. Thirteen Republicans voted with the majority of Democrats in support of the bill, though six Democrats voted against it.
The bill now heads to the President's desk to be signed into law, following hours of delays and internal debating among Democrats on Friday, including calls from Biden to persuade skeptical progressive members of the Democratic caucus.
The legislation passed the Senate in August, but was stalled in the House as Democrats tried to negotiate a deal on a separate $1.9 trillion economic package, another key component of Biden's agenda that many Democrats had tied to the fate of the infrastructure bill.

The legislation that passed Friday night will deliver $550 billion of new federal investments in America's infrastructure over five years, including money for roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports and waterways. The package includes a $65 billion investment in improving the nation's broadband infrastructure, and invests tens of billions of dollars in improving the electric grid and water systems. Another $7.5 billion would go to building a nationwide network of plug-in electric vehicle chargers, according to the bill text.
Biden called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just before midnight to congratulate her on the passage of the infrastructure bill, a source familiar with the call told CNN. On the call, Pelosi thanked Biden for his help in getting the bill over the finish line as well.

Going into Friday, Pelosi said it was her intention to vote on final passage of the infrastructure bill and the economic package known as the Build Back Better Act. Instead, early Saturday morning, the House passed the rule that will govern debate on the Build Back Better Act on a party-line vote, before adjourning for a week-long committee work period.
However, Pelosi later in the afternoon indicated that they would solely move the infrastructure bill amid push back from moderates that the separate economic agenda bill needs an official cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, a process that could take about two weeks.

After hours of negotiating, the House finally moved forward to send the infrastructure bill to Biden's desk, despite opposition from progressives who had warned that they would sink the infrastructure bill if it moved ahead without the separate economic package.
The party had been struggling for months to unite its moderate and progressive wings to enact the President's agenda, but those efforts had repeatedly stalled out, delivering a series of blows to congressional Democrats and the White House. The party had already had to punt on voting on the infrastructure bill twice in two months due to a separate set of demands from progressives. Biden has gotten personally involved, visiting the Hill twice to rally Democrats, and working the phones with moderates this week. That has still not resolved the impasse.
Ahead of the infrastructure vote, a group of moderates that represented key holdouts on the social spending package issued a statement detailing their commitments to vote for the social spending bill, which was aimed at getting progressives on board to support the infrastructure bill.
Shortly after, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal released a statement saying that the caucus had reached a deal with fellow Democrats to vote on the infrastructure bill Friday night, abandoning a key tenet of their position, which was to only vote for the infrastructure bill when the social spending bill also would receive a final vote.
Even though Jayapal's statement brought a significant number of progressives onboard, there were still six progressive holdouts who stuck to their original plan of voting against infrastructure until the social spending plan also received a final vote. The brokered deal between Jayapal and moderates did peel off a significant number of progressives from the vote down infrastructure camp, as that number was as high as 20 at one point during the day on Friday.
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Cont.
Pelosi's whip count
As frustration over the holdup intensified, House leadership pressed ahead with a plan to vote on the infrastructure bill and a separate rule governing debate for the social spending bill.
Pelosi held firm at a news conference that the new plan will go forward and sounded confident about the prospects of passing the infrastructure bill, though she did not explicitly say there is enough support to approve the measure.
Asked if she has 218 votes to pass the infrastructure bill without the social spending bill, Pelosi only said "we'll see."
Pelosi said with a smile at one point, "I have the speaker's secret whip count."
"I do believe there are a large number of members of the progressive caucus who will vote for the bill," she said.
Biden calls progressives
Biden called Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, this afternoon amid the standoff, according to three sources familiar with the matter. She left a meeting of the Congressional Progressive Caucus early to take the call.
After the call, Jayapal asked for a show of hands of those who would not back the infrastructure bill, roughly 20 progressives raised their hands, according to a source in the room.
The President separately called into a meeting of the Progressive Caucus itself and spoke on speakerphone to the members, according to two sources familiar with the call, pushing a vote on the infrastructure bill. Biden also scrapped his travel to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Friday night as initially planned, according to a White House official, as he continues to push for a path forward on advancing his agenda.
Part of Biden's message to progressives Friday is that he was willing to work with them to find some kind of solution, so long as they agreed to vote for the infrastructure bill in the coming hours, according to a source familiar with the call. Things moved toward the process of crafting a statement, backed by the moderates and Biden, that would provide explicit and concrete assurances related to the future vote on Biden's economic and climate agenda bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, the source said.
Multiple sources told CNN that Jayapal and moderate Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey were in direct talks as they tried to finalize a deal that could get the infrastructure bill to the President's desk Friday with concrete assurances the moderates would back the Build Back Better Act.
The memo issued by five moderate members of the Democratic caucus was aimed at giving those assurances. Gottheimer and fellow moderate Democratic Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Kathleen Rice of New York and Kurt Schrader of Oregon vowed to vote for the social spending package "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 15."
Frustration throughout the day
Some House Democrats were angry at the handful of moderates holding up action over demands that the $1.9 trillion bill get a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, a process that could take weeks.
Rep. Mark Pocan, former chair of the progressive caucus, described today on the Hill colorfully, telling reporters, "Well, the whole day was a clusterf***, right?"
"Not one of my constituents cares about the CBO," said one member.
"Everyone is anxious to get this done," another member said. "There's growing frustration that the Blue Dogs keep moving the goal post. Every time we get close, they come up with a new demand." The Blue Dog Coalition is a group of centrist House Democrats.
Progressive members were also not happy with the new plan being pushed by leadership of letting infrastructure pass without the social spending bill, multiple sources told CNN.
"They would lose at least 20 votes of Pramila, squad and core progressives for BIF if they chose that route. It won't pass," one progressive told CNN, referring to Jayapal, the Congressional Progressive chairwoman, and other members of the caucus and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is frequently referred to as BIF.
Moderate demands stall push for votes
Five moderates signed onto a letter this week calling for a CBO score, before floor consideration of the Build Back Better Act.
CBO scores of legislation provide an estimate of the effects the policies could have on revenue and spending. Moderates, many of whom have expressed concerns over the overall cost of the bill, argue it is important to have that information and a full picture of the potential impact of the sweeping social safety net plan before holding a vote.
But it could take some time to prepare such a cost estimate. In the meantime, Democratic leadership is relying on a White House analysis saying the bill is fully paid for, based in part on the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, told CNN he expected a CBO score to take about 10-14 days, and wouldn't be done until the week before Thanksgiving. Some think it could slip until the week of Thanksgiving, though preliminary estimates could be done earlier.
Schrader, who signed onto the letter calling for a CBO score, left Pelosi's office earlier on Friday and told CNN "we have no resolution that I know" when asked if he is ready to vote on Build Back Better.
In one sign of progress for leadership, after meeting in Pelosi's office, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia tweeted that she is not against voting for the social spending bill and that the CBO score is not a red line for her.
"There are a lot of rumors swirling. Let me be clear — this bill is paid for and it has a number of my priorities in it. If it comes to the Floor today — I will support the Build Back Better Act," she said.
Some issues resolved
Democratic sources say that negotiations over immigration provisions have been resolved — and the last remaining hurdle to passing a bill is the demand by five moderates that they get a CBO score before a vote.
In a sign that a deal is getting closer, House Democrats have also resolved another sticking point: How to deal with state and local tax deductions, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Democrats from the Northeast and West Coast have been pushing to loosen the caps imposed by the 2017 tax law.
Under the new SALT deal, deductions would be capped at $80,000 per year over a nine-year time span, according to Rep. Tom Malinowski, who helped cut the deal.
Before this week, demands from progressives had taken center stage in the push to pass the bills in the House. Progressives have demanded that both the social safety net plan and the infrastructure bill move in tandem.

 

I've been saying for quite awhile that Democrats messaging is terrible and as we see with the ACA that law did a lot and is more popular now that it was when it passed.

I feel both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and what we still have in the Build Back Better Bill are both ones that are very needed and will help many Americans. The message has to be to quit looking at these bills as defeats but as WINS.

As happy as I am that this bill has passed I note my own Representative Ilhan Omar voted against it. This bill will do a lot for her district but this mindset that this bill is a failure because it wasn't the $3.5 Trillion bill doesn't help. Frankly it's another example that she is more interested in ideological positioning than she is in helping her district.