WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 68-31 on Tuesday to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package after negotiators removed from the bill every provision that would have repaired, expanded or otherwise improved infrastructure.
The final text, assembled over eight months, retains $940 million for renaming post offices, $310 million for commissioning studies on the feasibility of future studies, and a $45 million grant program to help states apply for grants.
“This is a historic investment in the idea of investment,” said Sen. Harold Pynch of Ohio, the bill’s floor manager. “For too long, Washington has told the American people that we would fix the roads. Today we are telling them that we have heard them, and that we have formed a committee to hear them again.”
The bill’s gradual hollowing began in September, when a bipartisan working group concluded that the word “infrastructure” had become “divisive.” Negotiators replaced it with “strategic asset stewardship,” then with “things,” and finally with a section heading titled “Various.”
A bridge to somewhere
The package does include $4 billion for a new bridge over the Cuyahoga River, though the money is designated for a study of whether a bridge is the right approach, and the study is prohibited from concluding that it is.
Supporters argued that the bill’s true achievement was procedural. “We have created a framework in which a future Congress could, in theory, build something,” said Sen. Alma Reyes of California. “That framework is itself a kind of infrastructure, if you think about it for long enough.”
“Nobody got what they wanted, and everyone got a ribbon-cutting.”
A White House statement
The White House said the president would sign the legislation on Wednesday at a ceremony beside the Langley Avenue Bridge, which is currently closed to traffic and will remain closed.
Opponents on both sides found little to celebrate. “I came here to fix the water system in my district,” said Sen. Marcus Webb of Michigan. “I am leaving with a plaque.”
The bill now heads to the House, where leaders have promised to take it up “promptly,” a word that in this context has historically meant sometime before the next election.