⚡ Punchbowl News Special Edition: A Saturday infrastructure update

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

Happy Saturday. We thought it would be useful to give you a reported update on the state of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and what’s happening on the Senate floor.

Here’s what we know: Sources involved in the drafting process tell us that legislative text for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package will be finished late today or tomorrow.

Right now, the bipartisan group is still “scrubbing” the bill. That means senators and aides are still reviewing the legislative text to see if 1) comports with the deal the bipartisan group struck, and 2) doesn’t cause problems in other areas of public policy or conflict with current law. 

Of course, there’s a cascading effect from this “drafting and scrubbing” effort taking so long. If the bipartisan group doesn’t release its legislation until late today or tomorrow, that means the amendment process on the Senate floor may not start until Monday. We anticipate that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will need some time to hammer out an agreement on amendments — who offers what amendments, how many and in what order they’ll be offered, etc. None of this has been agreed to yet because no one has seen the final language of the bipartisan proposal. GOP senators opposed to the bipartisan proposal are going to want as many amendments as possible, but Democratic amendments on transit and water infrastructure funding are also expected.

And the floor process for considering this infrastructure bill will be complicated as well. There will be two more cloture votes before final passage. If the proposal’s opponents take all possible time, this could easily drag into next weekend, depending on when the text is dropped. Then the Senate will begin working on the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution.

The Senate came into session this morning at 11 a.m., and it’s clear the leadership on both sides of the aisle is getting antsy to see a finished product from the bipartisan group.

“Look, I understand that writing the text of a bill this size is a difficult project. I have been part of many such efforts in the past,” Schumer said on the floor this morning. “But I urge the bipartisan group to finish their work so that we can begin the amendment process here on the floor.”

More Schumer: “I have said for weeks that the Senate is going to move forward on both tracks of infrastructure before the beginning of the August recess. The longer it takes to finish, the longer we’ll be here. But we’re going to get the job done. I will update the Senate on the timing of the next vote as we move forward.”

We will keep you posted as we hear more.

Meanwhile: Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) spent the night outside the Capitol, protesting the House leaving town without extending the eviction moratorium.