Senators Scramble to Finalize Deal on Infrastructure Package

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON—Lawmakers pushed to finalize an infrastructure agreement Sunday, but said they were still struggling to resolve a dispute over how much to increase public transit funding, a snag that could delay their goal of advancing the bill in a Senate vote early this week.

GOP senators had blocked efforts by Democrats to begin consideration of the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Wednesday, saying too much of the package remained unresolved. Lawmakers in a bipartisan group crafting the legislation said late last week that they hoped to finish in time to reverse that outcome in a second vote in the next few days.

Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio), the lead GOP negotiator of the bipartisan group, said Sunday on ABC that negotiators were “about 90% of the way there” in reaching an agreement, but were still battling over how much money to direct to public transit. Democrats have pushed to include a larger share of transit funding.

“We have one issue outstanding and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it. It’s about mass transit. Our transit number is very generous,” Mr. Portman said. Democrats have said that the GOP transit proposals were insufficient.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senators-scramble-to-finalize-deal-on-infrastructure-package/ar-AAMxDxI

Or we could give block grants to each state to fund transportation as their needs require. New York would be more dependent on transit than other states while Montana would be more dependent on roads.

[abqtommy]

1. I don't expect this low-cost bipartisan bill to go anywhere. It's just the usual reTHUG distraction.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

2. This will be ACA Part Deux. The GQP will force the Dems to make concessions, and delay

as long as they can. When it comes time for the final vote they will all vote against it, and Dems will be stuck with a watered down bill. This will happen in the name of "bipartisanship," which seems to be a concept only the Dems support. The Repug playbook is pretty thin on how they do things; they go for the jugular on every issue.

[Merlot]

3. Annoying that repubs are quoted and not dems. Writing validates the repub viewpoint.

I've noticed that happens a lot, on npr they interview repubs first and sometimes exclusively.

“We have one issue outstanding and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it. It’s about mass transit. Our transit number is very generous,” Mr. Portman said. Democrats have said that the GOP transit proposals were insufficient.