Senate approves $3.5t bill despite GOP attacks

WASHINGTON－The Senate approved a $3.5 trillion spending blueprint for bolstering family services, health and environment programs in the United States early on Wednesday in a 50-49 vote along party lines, as Republicans unleashed an avalanche of amendments aimed at making their rivals pay the price in next year's elections.

After months of haggling, the Senate on Tuesday passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill in a bipartisan 69-30 vote, proposing to make the nation's biggest investment in decades in roads, bridges, airports and waterways. The measure faces an uncertain future in the House of Representatives.

The bills have been a top priority for US President Joe Biden, who has sought to enact sweeping changes during a time when Democrats hold slim majorities in both congressional chambers and where they fear loss of legislative control in the looming 2022 elections.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a national figure with legislative clout, said the measure would help children, families, the elderly and working people among others. "It will also, I hope, restore the faith of the American people in the belief that we can have a government that works for all of us, and not just the few," he said.

But it's unclear how soon the House will take up the measure.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said 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 legislation to Biden's desk.

Republicans argued that the Democrats' proposals would waste money, raise economy-wounding taxes, fuel inflation and codify extreme dictates that would harm the public.

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 workers 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," said Graham, referring to the contests that will determine control of Congress.

Though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans lack the votes to block the bill, he vowed that they will continue to debate and vote on the issue.

Budget resolution passage is critical because in the 50-50 Senate, it would let the Democrats alone to approve a subsequent bill that will enact their $3.5 trillion in spending and tax policies over the next decade. Approval of the budget would shield the follow-on legislation from Republican filibusters, procedural delays that kill bills.

Debt ceiling

Republicans crowed after Democrats opposed GOP amendments calling for the full-time reopening of pandemic-shuttered schools, boosting the Pentagon's budget and retaining limits on federal income tax deductions for state and local levies. Those deduction caps are detested by lawmakers from upper-income, mostly Democratic states.

On Tuesday, 46 Republican senators hit back at the Democrats' ambitious spending plans by signing a pledge not to vote to raise the nation's borrowing capability when it is exhausted in the autumn.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had urged Congress on Monday to raise the debt limit through regular order on a bipartisan basis.

If Democrats want to pass legislation to raise or suspend the debt limit through regular order, they will need the support of 10 Republican senators to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.

Agencies - Xinhua