Senate OKs Dems' $3.5T budget in latest win for Biden

The Democratic-controlled United States Senate on Tuesday passed a massive infrastructure bill and immediately kicked off debate on a US$3.5-trillion spending blueprint for President Joe Biden's key priorities on climate change, universal preschool and affordable housing.

The bipartisan US$1-trillion infrastructure bill, which the 100-member chamber passed in a 69-30 vote, could provide the nation's biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports and waterways.

With a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Democrats pivoted quickly to a budget resolution containing spending instructions for the multi-trillion-dollar follow-up package. They plan to push the package through over the next few months, using a process called "budget reconciliation," which bypasses the chamber's normal rules requiring 60 votes to pass most legislation.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said that her chamber will not take up the infrastructure bill or spending package until both are delivered, which will require the Democratic leadership to hold its narrow majorities in Congress together to get the bill to Biden's desk.

"Today we move this country in a very different direction" with a budget plan that will "ask the wealthiest people in our country to start paying their fair share of taxes," Senate Budget Committee chairman Bernie Sanders, one of the Senate's most liberal members, said on Tuesday as debate began.

Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the budget committee, railed against the spending plan, saying it would fuel inflation, lead to higher taxes and energy costs for working Americans and open the border to more illegal immigration.

"In 2022, this idea will be on the ballot, and my goal and my Republican colleagues' is to fight like hell," Graham said, referring to next year's contests that will determine control of Congress.

The Senate on Tuesday began a "vote-a-rama," a process that gives senators the opportunity to propose amendments to the budget resolution. Debate can run for days unless party leaders agree to a shorter period.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, said the House would return from its summer break early on August 23 to consider the budget resolution, if the Senate passes it.

Polls show the drive to upgrade America's infrastructure, hammered out over months by senators from both parties, is broadly popular with the public. The bill includes US$550 billion in new spending, as well as US$450 billion in previously approved infrastructure investment.

Biden praised the infrastructure bill at the White House, saying the planned investments would "allow us to out-compete the rest of the world."