WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans reached a deal with Democrats on Wednesday over major outstanding issues in a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and said they are ready to vote to take up the bill. An evening test vote was possible.
Lead GOP negotiator Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio made the announcement at the Capitol, flanked by four other Republican senators who have been in talks with Democrats and the White House on the bipartisan package.
“We now have an agreement on the major issues,” Portman said. “We are prepared to move forward.”
Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona, a lead Democratic negotiator, said she spoke Wednesday with President Joe Biden and he was “very excited” to have an agreement.
For days, senators and the White House have worked to salvage the bipartisan deal, a key part of Biden’s agenda.
The outcome will set the stage for the next debate over Biden’s much more ambitious $3.5 trillion spending package, a strictly partisan pursuit of far-reaching programs and services including child care, tax breaks and health care that touch almost every corner of American life, and that Republicans strongly oppose.
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