19 GOP senators join Dems to pass Biden’s $1T Infrastructure bill [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Nineteen Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell, join the Democrats to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Tuesday.
• The next move is to approve a budget resolution that would let Democrats pass their $3.5 trillion spending bill without the GOP votes.
• GOP senators who were against the legislation say much of the bill is not actually about infrastructure.

The Senate passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Tuesday, a giant leap for Democrats as they attempt to push President Joe Biden’s economic agenda through Congress.

“Infrastructure is exactly the kind of subject that Congress should be able to address across the aisle. Roads, bridges, waterways, airports — these things are not luxuries for the greatest nation in world history,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last week.

McConnell was the top-ranking Republican who voted for the bill. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who also voted for the bill, said that “there [are] some things missing that the [GOP] would love but this is a 50-50 Senate. Democrats have a majority in the House and the White House.” 

Here’s the list of all 19 GOP senators who voted for the infrastructure bill:

• Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
• Richard Burr, R-N.C.
• Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
• Bill Cassidy, R-La.
• Susan Collins, R-Maine
• Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.
• Mike Crapo, R-Idaho
• Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
• Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
• John Hoeven, R-N.D.
• Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
• Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska
• Rob Portman, R-Ohio
• Jim Risch, R-Idaho
• Mitt Romney, R-Utah
• Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska
• Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
• Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
• Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

Republicans who are against the bill say much of it is not actually about infrastructure, and decry the fact that it is not fully paid for, 

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who’s been the most vocal opponent of the bill, said. “[W]e have a package with some infrastructure—good for our economy—riddled with big government and massive deficit spending—over a quarter of a trillion dollars in the hole,”

Former President Donald Trump has been publicly opposing the infrastructure deal.

“Nobody will ever understand why Mitch McConnell allowed this non-infrastructure bill to be passed,” Trump said Thursday. “He has given up all of his leverage for the big whopper of a bill that will follow. I have quietly said for years that Mitch McConnell is the most overrated man in politics—now I don’t have to be quiet anymore.”

The bill will now head to the House of Representatives where it faces an uncertain path forward. 

Moderate House Democrats are asking Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to immediately hold a vote on the legislation, without connecting it to any other bill. But Pelosi and progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., say they will refuse to vote on the infrastructure bill until the Senate passes Democrats’ massive $3.5 trillion spending package via budget reconciliation. 

Source: Fox News