Senators scramble to seal infrastructure package deal

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WASHINGTON – Lawmakers pushed to finalize an infrastructure agreement Sunday, but said they were still struggling to resolve a dispute over how much to increase public transportation funding, an obstacle that could delay their goal of bringing the bill to a Senate vote early this week. .

Republican senators halted Democrats’ efforts to begin consideration of the nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Wednesday, saying much of the package remains unresolved. Lawmakers in a bipartisan group drafting the legislation said late last week that they hoped to finish in time to reverse that result in a second vote in the next few days.

Senator Rob Portman (Republic, Ohio), the bipartisan group’s chief Republican negotiator, said Sunday on ABC that negotiators were “about 90% of the way there” to reach an agreement, but were still wrangling over how much money was needed directly into the transfer. general. Democrats pushed to include a larger share of transit funding.

We have one outstanding issue that we don’t get much response from Democrats on. It’s about mass transit. “Our transit number is very generous,” Mr. Portman said. Democrats said the GOP’s crossover proposals weren’t enough.

“They weren’t serious about converting dollars,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), who oversees transit financing, late last week. “We’ve offered to split the teams, and they don’t seem to want to do that.”

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