Biden celebrates a bipartisan win after Senate passes massive infrastructure bill

CNN

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

President Joe Biden celebrated the Senate’s passage of a historic, sweeping $1.2 trillion bipartisan package on Tuesday, a step toward fulfilling a key item in his legislative agenda that also amounts to the biggest bipartisan win of his presidency so far.

“The death of this legislation was mildly premature, as reported,” Biden said, as he thanked senators on both sides of the aisle for working together to get the bill passed.

“After years and years of infrastructure week, we are on the cusp of an infrastructure decade that I truly believe will transform America,” he added.

Biden was scheduled to remain on vacation this week, but returned to Washington on Tuesday morning for the Senate vote.

The legislation, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, includes $550 billion in new federal spending over five years. It invests $110 billion in roads, bridges and major projects, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to rebuild the electric grid, $65 billion to expand broadband internet access, $39 billion to modernize and expand transit systems and $7.5 billion to build a national network of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Among other priorities, the bill also includes $55 billion for water infrastructure, $15 billion of which will be directed toward replacing lead pipes.

The bill passed in the Senate by a wide bipartisan majority of 69-30, with 19 Republicans voting for the bill. Now, the legislation heads to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Timing of a vote in the House is uncertain, but it’s unlikely they’ll take it up until the fall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled that the Senate-backed bill won’t be taken up in the House until a larger, separate package is passed without GOP votes under the budget reconciliation process.

Democrats unveiled the budget resolution for their $3.5 trillion package on Monday, and the Senate is expected to move to consideration of the plan as soon as Tuesday. The package includes a number of measures to expand education, health care and child care support, address climate change and invest in infrastructure.

Republicans have balked at the size of the plan, which includes several measures outlined in the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan proposal Biden announced in April.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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CNN’s Ali Zaslav, Clare Foran, Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco contributed to this report.