Joe Biden’s US$ 1,200 bln plan is progressing in the Senate

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Joe Biden’s plan, worth US$ 1,200 billion to finance infrastructure and facilities, on Saturday, passed a key stage in the Senate thanks to broad support from Democrats and Republican members, and its approval is almost guaranteed before it is submitted to the House of Representatives.

This plan, which the US President described as “historic”, is the fruit of months of negotiations and a rare consensus between Republican and Democratic members of the Senate. The plan allocates new federal spending of $550 billion for investments in road and bridge development, transportation, broadband Internet and combating climate change.

The value of the plan amounts to 1200 billion, equivalent to Spain’s GDP in 2020, if the transfer of public funds allocated to other projects is taken into account for the benefit of this plan.

With the approval of 18 Republican senators, including their very influential leader, Mitch McConnell, and 49 Democrats, the Senate decided to end discussions on this bill.

This procedural vote required a majority of 60 votes. And it constitutes a crucial stage as it enhances the chances of the text being approved later by a simple majority, that is, 51 votes in the Senate.

However, the text still needs to go through another procedural stage with the possibility of a vote on new amendments.

The final vote may take place early next week or even this weekend, as the very flexible rules in the Senate allow for speeding up the procedures, provided unanimity is obtained.

On Saturday, members of the Senate will hold negotiations on the next stages.

Biden wrote in a tweet Saturday that this agreement “constitutes a historic investment. We can only implement it.”

The passage of the text would be a resounding victory for the Democratic president, who is counting on economic recovery and combating the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, former US President Donald Trump said Saturday that this agreement was “shameful”.

In a statement, he threatened, “It would be hard for me to support an idiot who would vote for the deal” while the former president remains popular with Republican voters and the midterm ends in 2022.

But Republicans backing the project also know that these investments have support among Republican voters Voters Mitch McConnell on Saturday defended this “imperfect” text, but it was the fruit of a “compromise”.

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