Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning to hold a vote to proceed to debate on the bipartisan infrastructure deal that President Biden struck last month, but today's vote is expected to fail under a Republican filibuster.
For their part, GOP senators who agreed to Biden's deal say they will vote for it next week even if they won't do so today.
Centrist Republicans are rushing to lock down sufficient GOP support to move forward next week on their bipartisan infrastructure plan, even as Wednesday’s vote to advance the framework is expected to fail.
[Senator Rob Portman] has been working on a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowing to move forward after Wednesday’s likely stumble, but he has not publicly released it yet.
Portman wants to demonstrate to Schumer that Republicans will move forward, just not on Wednesday.
It would be completely understandable to remain skeptical that enough Republican senators will vote for a bipartisan deal, but we won't have to wait very long to find out if they will.
Today's vote will be filibustered, but the real test will come next Monday. That's when we'll find out if Joe Biden's entire presidential legacy will be tied to infrastructure spending. Because if Monday's vote works, a second vote on a much larger reconciliation bill will proceed as well.
It feels fitting for the relatively quiet times we live in now that Democrats are so close to dramatically reshaping the economy and no one's hair is on fire. Republicans and conservative media have barely said a peep about any of it in comparison to the way they reacted to similar spending proposals under President Obama. And I don't think anyone needs two guesses why that is.