WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 68 to 32 shortly after midnight on Sunday to pass a sweeping $1.1 trillion infrastructure package, ending a months-long stalemate and handing a rare bipartisan victory to a Congress that has struggled to move major legislation.
The bill, the product of seven weeks of closed-door negotiations led by Senators Patricia Holcomb and Ray Delgado, would fund the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak, alongside new money for bridge repair, lead pipe replacement and broadband in rural counties.
“This is what the institution is supposed to look like,” Senator Holcomb said on the floor moments before the vote, gesturing at the unusual sight of a nearly full chamber past midnight. “Messy, late and, in the end, functional.”
Twelve members of the minority party joined the majority to pass the measure, though the margin concealed the fragility of the coalition. A last-minute amendment that would have stripped the rail funding failed by a single vote, and several senators said privately they expected a fight over the package to resume during the appropriations process this fall.
The White House said the president would sign the bill this week. In a statement, the transportation secretary called it “the most consequential investment in the physical fabric of the country in two generations.”
Independent analysts were more measured. The package's rail provisions, they noted, depend on matching funds from states that have not yet committed them, and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the bill will add roughly $140 billion to deficits over a decade unless offsetting revenue measures now pending in committee are enacted.
For the senators who brokered the deal, those fights lie ahead. As the chamber emptied at 12:40 a.m., Senator Delgado paused at the doors. “Enjoy tonight,” he said to reporters. “Tomorrow we start arguing about how to pay for it.”
