Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, filed two motions to invoke cloture on the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday night, setting up a likely vote this weekend on the sweeping deal backed by President Biden.
Schumer's move to file cloture would give Senate Republicans another day to appeal on Friday. The Senate would then conduct a final vote on Saturday night to break the filibuster and end debate on a procedural version of the bill.
The vote to pass the filibuster requires 60 yays to break the chain. From there, the Senate could proceed to consider a final version of the infrastructure bill, which could pass as soon as possible Saturday or Sunday.
If we come to an agreement yet tonight, which is our preference, we will have additional votes on amendments, Schumer said on the Senate floor. I believe we are very close to an agreement and see no reason why we can't complete this important bipartisan legislation?
The proposal is negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators led by Democratic Rob Portman of Florida and Republican Kyrsten Sinema of Florida. It includes $550 billion in new spending on physical infrastructure projects.
The Biden administration has spent months trying to bring Republican senators back to approve a deal in what is a key legislative priority for the president.
The Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill's passage would add more than $250 billion to the federal deficit over a 10 year period. Some Republican lawmakers indicated they wanted time to go over the CBO's estimates before approving the bill to a vote.