Bipartisan infrastructure pact clears key Senate vote after breakthrough in talks

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The 60 was needed for one part (which they are doing now)

but the reconciliation piece will only need 51, where obviously the problem is getting all 50 Ds to sign on (and/or some combo of a few Rs to give them at least 50/50 with a Harris tie-breaker or 51+).

What they just did cloture on was an Infrastructure bill that passed the House at the beginning of the month. With them having announced some bipartisan "break-through" thing now, they may end up using that to tack on to the House bill as amendments or as a "substitute" and send it back to the House (since money bills have to originate in the House).

And no, the ACA didn't have 2 cloture votes - just the one after Dems passed Part 1 in December 2009, but then lost a special election seat in MA to Scott Brown, dropping them down to 59 Ds in the Senate. That meant they were forced to "fix" Pt. 1's additional funding/stipulations through reconciliation as a Pt. 2, and at that point, they only needed a simple majority (which they still had with all Rs voting against it).