Schumer schedules procedural vote, US infrastructure bill expected to pass over the weekend

Schumer scheduled a procedural vote Thursday that will limit further debate on the bipartisan measure when the Senate meets on Saturday. Schumer had tried to move faster and hold a vote on Thursday night, but last-minute disagreements over amendments prevented that process.

Schumer at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on August 5.

One of the unresolved issues is how to amend the bill’s provisions regarding tax requirements for cryptocurrency transactions. The cryptocurrency industry said the original version of the bill unfairly targeted them and was overly broad.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Republican Senators Pat Toomey and Cynthia Lummis proposed a narrower scope, focusing on people who trade on exchanges. But Republican Senator Rob Portman and Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema proposed an alternative plan at the last minute, which was endorsed by the White House, that would target some software companies and cryptocurrency miners.

"We believe the alternative amendment proposed by Senators Warner, Portman, and Sinema strikes the right balance and takes an important step toward promoting tax compliance," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Toomey said they were "at an impasse" on the issue.

Another amendment in the works would allow state and local governments to use up to 30% of unused pandemic relief funds for infrastructure projects. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who co-sponsored the amendment with Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, said he had negotiated with the Biden administration on the change, which would free up an initial $80 billion to $100 billion for infrastructure projects. However, the amendment has not yet been scheduled for a vote.

The overall legislation includes $110 billion in new spending for roads and bridges, $73 billion for electric grid upgrades, $66 billion for railroads and Amtrak, $65 billion for broadband, $55 billion for clean water and $39 billion for transportation systems.

The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that the bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $256 billion over 10 years, though negotiators said the nonpartisan agency had not fully accounted for the plan's offsetting effects.

If passed, the infrastructure package would lay the groundwork for later consideration of President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion economic stimulus plan.