Senators race to overcome final snags in infrastructure deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers racing to seal a bipartisan infrastructure deal early this coming week are hitting a major roadblock over how much money should go to public transit, the group’s lead Republican negotiator said Sunday.

As discussions continued through the weekend, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman said both sides were “about 90% of the way there” on an agreement.

“We have one issue outstanding, and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it,” he said. “It’s about mass transit. Our transit number is very generous.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he wants to pass a bipartisan package and an accompanying $3.5 trillion budget plan before the Senate leaves for its August recess. He held a procedural vote last week to begin debate on the broad framework, but all 50 Senate Republicans voted against it, saying they needed to see the full details of the plan.

Democrats want to see more of the money in the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure agreement go toward boosting public transportation, which include subways, light-rail lines and buses, in line with President Joe Biden’s original infrastructure proposal.

The bipartisan group originally appeared to be moving toward agreement on more money for transit before an objection by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, the top Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee which oversees public transit. He cited, in part, previous COVID-19 federal relief money that had already been allocated to public transit.

“Nobody’s talking about cutting transit,” Toomey said Sunday. “The question is, how many tens of billions of dollars on top of the huge increase that they have already gotten is sufficient? And that’s where there is a little disagreement.”

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