U.S. Senate votes to advance bipartisan infrastructure bill

2021-07-29 01:36:10 GMT2021-07-29 09:36:10(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to proceed with a bipartisan infrastructure deal that was struck earlier in the day, clearing the first hurdle toward adopting a long-waited and hotly debated spending package.

In a key procedural vote, senators voted 67-32 to push the bill forward. The bill still needs final approval from both chambers.

The vote came just a few hours after Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, the top Republican negotiator, told reporters that a bipartisan group of senators has reached an agreement on the major issues of the infrastructure plan.

The bill includes 550 billion U.S. dollars in new spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, passenger rails, drinking water and waste water systems.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a budget watchdog group, said, "It is very encouraging that our leaders have put partisanship aside and come together to make important investments in the economy," but "we are deeply concerned that this legislation does not appear to be fully paid for."

MacGuineas urged policymakers to identify additional offsets to fully cover the costs and ideally -- as U.S. President Joe Biden proposed -- reduce long-term deficits. Enditem

| PRINT | RSS