After weeks of negotiations, the Senate voted on Tuesday, August 10, the infrastructure plan of 1,000 billion dollars (853 billion euros) by 69 votes against 30. This is less than the 2,300 billion wanted by the White House in the spring, but it is a major political success for Democratic President Joe Biden. Donald Trump’s successor wanted to reconcile America with itself and set an example by showing compromise: it is done, the law being the result of a compromise concocted with five Democratic senators and five Republican senators.
Mr. Biden succeeds where Donald Trump failed, unable to pass an infrastructure plan in line with his 2016 campaign promises. The president savored his pleasure in the White House, accompanied by his vice president Kamala Harris, recalling how many times his plan had been announced stillborn. “We have proven that we can come together to do great things for the American people,” he said, adding that ” there are no Republican bridges and Democratic roads ”. Mr Biden thanked Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell: “The compromise is hard on both sides. It is important for democracy to work. Today, we have proven that democracy works. “
More social spending abolished
The text, which has largely crossed the necessary bar of 60 votes and received the approval of 19 Republican senators, must now be sent to the House where the Democrats hold the majority. It will not be adopted until the fall, the Democrats, in particular its left wing, wanting to first adopt a social plan of 3.5 trillion dollars, which the Democrats call“Human infrastructure”.
On “physical” infrastructures, Joe Biden compared his plan to the digging of the Erie canal at the beginning of the XIXe century that connected New York to the Great Lakes, the transcontinental railroad during the Civil War, the highways in the 1950s and the conquest of the Moon. “We make the most progress when we invest in America itself. “ In the morning he recalled that “The United States ranks 13e world rank in infrastructure – and we risk falling further behind if we do not act. We must once again invest in America’s future ”.
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