The Senate is nearing a pivotal vote on a still-unwritten bipartisan infrastructure deal

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However, the fate of Wednesday’s election remains uncertain. Although Democrats expressed optimism about the timeline, Republicans were less confident. At the moment, it’s not clear if 10 Republicans will vote to move forward with the bipartisan bill.

When asked if he was confident the bipartisan group would meet Schumer’s deadline, Senator Mike Rounds (RS.D), a member of the group that negotiated the bipartisan framework, had a blunt response: “No.”

“We’re not done yet,” Rounds said. “I don’t think we’ll have any artificial deadlines. I think we’ll do our best to get things done quickly, but if we can come to an agreement, it would be great to do it before the ‘August break’.”

Schumer’s timeline comes as bipartisan Senate negotiators on infrastructure are unlikely to meet their Thursday deadline to resolve outstanding issues between members, according to two sources familiar with the talks. The group met again early Thursday afternoon, but members still need to resolve key disagreements over how to pay for the $1.2 trillion physical infrastructure deal Biden is backing. The bipartisan group met Tuesday night and made progress, but a host of questions about spending priorities also remained unanswered.

Among the proposed funding sources that could be changed is an IRS enforcement clause, a source of controversy for Republicans. One Democratic senator suggested that money from the increased IRS application could instead be used to pay for the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion package.

Group members are racing to turn the party framework they announced last month into a legislative text, and Schumer’s deadline will only increase pressure to end discussions. Many Senate Republicans interpreted it as an attempt to drown out the bipartisan talks, given the lack of legislative text and the possibility that members may not yet get a result from the Congressional Budget Office by Wednesday.

“Why the right to vote for something that has not yet been written?” asked Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), a McConnell confidant. “I don’t know if Senator Schumer prepared all of this for failure so that he could then move on to the budget. That might be part of his Machiavellian scheme.”

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.), who tried to negotiate a bipartisan infrastructure package but failed, interpreted Schumer’s move as an attempt to “pressure the group to either present itself or shut up.”

Schumer will take the first steps toward moving the bipartisan physical infrastructure proposal into motion Monday, using a House bill as a legislative tool that will later be amended to reflect the bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal. Even if a deal is reached and the Senate votes to move forward with the bill next week, it will likely take days or even weeks to finish his work on bipartisan legislation due to a burning desire to vote on amendments to a bill Biden is likely to win. Signature.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged that the House will not move forward with a bipartisan infrastructure package until the Senate passes a budget that puts in place the $3.5 trillion social spending package. Senior Democrats don’t expect this calculation to change based on recent Senate moves.

And with Democrats just clearing up the details of the bipartisan spending package, it could be weeks, if not months, before the House takes the bipartisan bill.

Both physical infrastructure and social spending bills are top priorities for Biden, who attended a party lunch for Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has refrained from ruling so far on the bipartisan plan, encouraging his members to consider it a separate effort from the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion bill. Several Republicans have expressed concerns about its funding and are awaiting an official outcome from the Congressional Budget Office once the bill text is finalised.

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.

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