President Joe Biden's $1,200 billion infrastructure plan has passed a key stage in the Senate, after it was approved by 18 Republicans, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell, and 49 Democrats, according to Al-Hurra.
The Senate voted 67 to 27 to remove obstacles and push the bill for final approval. This rare consensus in the vote on this plan came after months of negotiations between Republican and Democratic senators.
The final approval of the plan still needs to go through another procedural stage, with the possibility of a vote on new amendments on it. It is expected that the final vote will be held early next week, before the plan is submitted to the House of Representatives, where its approval will be almost guaranteed in the House of Representatives with a democratic majority.
For his part, President Biden praised the outcome of the vote, and said in a tweet on his presidential account on Twitter that this agreement “constitutes a historic investment. We can only implement it.”
The president also considered the plan necessary to keep the country ahead of China, which he had previously said that its investments in infrastructure far exceed American investments, and also warned at the time that China would “eat our lunch” without a similar investment, according to Politico.
The site described the bipartisan consensus on Biden's plan as "a rare consensus that carries a message to China." The approval of the plan would be a resounding victory for Biden, who is counting on economic recovery and combating the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to economists.
On the other hand, former President Donald Trump described this agreement as a "shameful". And according to Newsweek, Trump said in a statement, "It would be difficult for me to support someone who is so stupid as to vote for this agreement." Trump remains popular with Republican voters and is expected to influence their views as the midterms end in 2022.
It is noteworthy that the infrastructure plan includes spending $550 billion on road projects, bridges, railways, the Internet and electric vehicle technology.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill would add $256 billion to the US budget deficit over 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed, noting that more than half of spending on new infrastructure will be offset by payments.
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