Mammoth bill passed after months of delay

US House OKs $1.2 trillion measure but vote on $1.85 trillion plan still lies ahead

WASHINGTON－US President Joe Biden has hailed Congress' passage of his $1.2 trillion infrastructure measures after a monthslong standoff, though his approval ratings have dropped and voters gave his party the cold shoulder in elections on Tuesday.

"Finally, infrastructure week," Biden said on Saturday. "I'm so happy to say that: infrastructure week."

The House passed the measure 228-206 late on Friday, prompting prolonged cheers from the relieved Democratic side of the chamber. Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the legislation, and six Democratic members opposed it.

Approval of the bill, which, it is said, will create millions of jobs and improve broadband, water supplies and other public works, means it now goes to Biden to be signed.

On Tuesday the Democrats' candidate for governor in Virginia was defeated, and its candidate for governor in New Jersey won with a slim margin. The two states are regarded as Democrat leaning. Those setbacks made party leaders, and moderates and liberals alike, impatient to produce legislation that would have an impact and demonstrate they know how to govern. Democrats can ill afford to be seen in disarray a year before midterm elections that could give Republicans congressional control.

The infrastructure measures are mammoth investments by any measure, something Biden compares in its breadth to the building of the interstate highway system last century or the transcontinental railway the century before. He touted it as a "blue collar blueprint to rebuilding America".

Freeing up the infrastructure measure for final congressional approval was like a burst of adrenaline for Democrats. Yet despite the win, they endured a setback when a vote on a second, larger bill－the Build Back Better" plan－was postponed until later this month.

That 10-year, $1.85 trillion measure bolstering health, family and climate change programs was sidetracked after moderates demanded a cost estimate on the measure from the Congressional Budget Office. The postponement dashed hopes that the day would produce a double-barreled win for Biden with passage of both bills.

But in an evening breakthrough brokered by Biden and House leaders, five moderates agreed to back that bill if the budget office's estimates are consistent with preliminary numbers that White House and congressional tax analysts have provided. The agreement, in which lawmakers promised to vote on the social and environment bill by the week of Nov 15, was a significant step toward a House vote that could ultimately ship it to the Senate.

Five moderates said that if the fiscal estimates on the social and environment bill raise problems, "we remain committed to working to resolve any discrepancies" to pass it.

In exchange, liberals agreed to back the infrastructure measure, whose passage, they had insisted for months, must be tied to that of the social and environment bill.

Rare detente

The day marked a rare detente between Democrats' moderate and liberal wings that party leaders hope will continue. They had spent weeks accusing each other of jeopardizing Biden's and the party's success by overplaying their hands. But on Friday night the liberal faction suggested they would work together.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a US watchdog group, said in a statement on Friday that while Biden and members of Congress pledged their agenda would not add to the debt, it is likely that both bills would increase the deficit based on official estimates.

"A fiscally responsible Build Back Better agenda should be fully paid for, gimmick-free, well-targeted based on the country's needs, and enacted in the context of a broader budget," MacGuineas said.

"While policymakers should be commended for their efforts to scale back costs and include real offsets, these bills still fall far short of those goals."

Agencies - Xinhua