The Hill By Alexander Bolton - 08/04/21
Senate action on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill has slowed to a crawl as lawmakers haggle over more than 250 proposed amendments to the legislation.
In several instances, senators are holding their colleagues’ amendments hostage by objecting to voting on them unless their own priorities are also guaranteed a vote.
But with nearly 300 amendments filed, not everyone is going to get their proposed changes to the legislation on the Senate floor, fueling frustrations among senators on both sides of the aisle.
Senators say they expect the bipartisan package to come up for a final series of votes as soon as this weekend. But the timing will depend on whether Republican senators, in particular, feel they’ve been given enough chance to make changes to the legislation.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), one of the principal negotiators of the bipartisan deal, complained the package is moving “not fast enough.”
“There are people holding amendments that they really shouldn’t be,” he said. “Vote up or down. Churn and burn, baby.”
Tester at this point said “it’s probably going to be Saturday” before there’s a vote on final passage.
More:
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/566231-new-hurdle-slows-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill?rl=1
