Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was prepared to keep lawmakers in Washington for as long as it took to complete votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure plan and a budget blueprint.
The bipartisan package includes about $600 billion in new spending on highways, bridges, transit, broadband, water systems and other public works projects.
Despite several ongoing disputes, all sides — the White House, Republicans and Democrats — sounded upbeat that an accord was within reach as senators braced for a possible weekend session to finish the deal.
For weeks, the 10 Republicans and Democrats hashing out a roughly $1 trillion package to revitalize the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections have insisted that the group was close to finalizing a deal with the White House.
As discussions continued through the weekend, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said both sides were “about 90% of the way there” on an agreement.
Former U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh will work with the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, while Former Sen. Dan Coats will join the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., includes $10 billion to fund regional technology hubs—one of which Indiana officials are hoping to land—for five years.
Government and business leaders are preparing to bid to host one of the regional tech hubs that would be created by the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, even though the bill has yet to pass.
After laboring through the night on a mountain of amendments—nearly all from Republicans and rejected—bleary-eyed senators on Saturday approved the sprawling package on a 50-49 party-line vote.
Young, 48, had widely been expected to seek another term and made it official on Twitter on Tuesday morning, saying “more work remains” to be done.
Sen. Mike Braun indicated he would drop his objections, saying he wanted to “get this ugly day behind us.”
The bill affirms a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops and guides defense policy, cementing decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, personnel policy and other military goals.
Joe Biden appeared to have a clear advantage in being elected president Wednesday afternoon, but the failure to achieve a clear Democratic wave as projected left President Donald Trump’s critics deeply disappointed.
Republicans fought to retain their Senate majority by turning back a surge of Democrats challenging allies of President Donald Trump, and the Democrats’ various paths to seizing control were growing more limited.
Overall, the Judicial Crisis Network, which was founded in 2005 to promote President George W. Bush’s nominees, said it would spend at least $10 million to support Barrett’s confirmation—roughly the same amount it spent to successfully advocate for Trump’s prior picks for the high court, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation despite Democratic objections, just over a week before the presidential election.
Senate Republicans have swiftly fallen in line behind President Donald Trump’s push to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat. Trump, who will announce his nominee Saturday, is all but certain to have the votes to confirm his choice.
Sen. James Buck of Kokomo said delegates at a state party convention would select the best Senate candidates and that eliminating primary campaigns would make running for office less costly.
Young is out front nationally on a key anti-smoking platform: Raising the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21.
The current Indiana members of the House and Senate have served an average of 8.6 years on Capitol Hill, a number that will go down when Brooks leaves.
