Lawmakers reacted Friday night with cheers and grumbles after House Democrats finally passed a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package with the help of 13 Republicans.
The Infrastructure and Jobs Act now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his expected signature, months after it passed the Senate.
The House decided not to pass the companion Build Back Better Act at the same time, as progressives had hoped, and instead set up a later vote on the broader social spending bill.
Biden called the passed package a “once-in-generation bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create millions of jobs, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path to win the economic competition for the 21st Century.”
Longtime foil Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) gushed Friday about how the infrastructure bill will help his state. It is expected to pour about $6 billion into West Virginia over the next five years.
“I’m incredibly proud of my bipartisan colleagues for their tireless efforts to get this across the finish line,” he said in a statement late Friday.
Six progressive Democrats votes against the bill.
“Passing the infrastructure bill without passing the Build Back Better Act first risks leaving behind childcare, paid leave, health care, climate action, housing, education, and a roadmap to citizenship,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said in a statement,
Far right of that political spectrum, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) immediately posted the names (with one misspelled) and office phone numbers of the Republican lawmakers who, as she said, “handed over their voting cards to [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi to pass Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure.”
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), one of the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was blunt — and pleased.
“The whole day was a clusterfuck,” he said. “But beyond that, you know … I thought everyone was working in a very congenial way. I mean, rank-and-file members figured out how to get shit done.”