The Archive

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

Happy Sunday night. Here it is —  finally: the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. All 2,702 pages of it.

The G10 group of senators, led by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), released their proposal late tonight. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly made the proposal the base bill for the chamber’s debate this week. 

The G10 group hopes to finish this debate in a few days, possibly this week. This is hugely ambitious. So be prepared to hear complaints about that timetable beginning tomorrow morning. And we will also note that everything takes longer to do in the Senate than originally planned. Everything.

This is a hugely complicated piece of legislation. The table of contents is 18 pages by itself. The biggest questions will center on the appropriations sections of the proposal and what it includes. There were numerous discussions about this language throughout the weekend. The authorization language is crucial, of course, but appropriations language directs where the money goes. That’s the ballgame.

There are also major concerns about budgetary offsets. GOP opponents of the bill say the offsets offered by the “G10” bipartisan groups of senators don’t add up. Well see how this plays out.

The G10 went to the Senate floor Sunday night to celebrate their agreement and how it was put together over the last several months.

“This very process of finding bipartisan compromise and working together to overcome obstacles, to achieve the objectives the American people are depending upon us to do, is the very heart and the very core of why each of us serve in this government,” Sinema said. “I for one — in addition to being tired — I for one am incredibly proud of this process.”

“This process of starting from the center out worked,” Portman said, repeating an argument he’s made for days. “People have talked about infrastructure in this city forever.”

Even the G10 group itself was making fun of how long it took to come up with the legislation.

“They say that making laws is like making sausage,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). “But I’ve seen sausage made, and it’s a prettier process, and it’s a lot easier.”

Schumer sent a subtle message to his colleagues about how delicate this compromise is, and that amending it too freely could cause problems with the whole bill. We’re not sure GOP senators opposed to the measure will care.

“Given how bipartisan the bill is, and how much work has already been put in to get the details right, I believe the Senate can quickly process relevant amendments and pass this bill in a matter of days,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Thursday could be a target date, although that seems incredibly fast, we don’t think it’s possible. There is a funeral on Friday in Wyoming for the late GOP Sen. Mike Enzi, and we expect a number of senators will want to attend.

And remember that there will be two cloture votes on this legislation before final passage. That’s 60 hours of post-cloture debate time that has to be chewed up. Schumer and other party leaders will work to get that yielded back, but there’s no guarantee that will happen.

So if the Senate can finish this by next weekend, we’d be surprised.