Bipartisan infrastructure group grows to 21 senators

A group of 11 more senators announced support Wednesday for a $974 billion, five-year bipartisan infrastructure framework unveiled last week, giving the proposal a crucial political boost in the nick of time.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Todd Young (Ind.) announced Wednesday afternoon they will join the five Republicans who signed onto the framework last week.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) announced later Wednesday that he too would support the proposal.

They were joined by four Democrats — Sens. Chris Coons (Del.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.). — and Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.

“We support this bipartisan framework that provides an historic investment in our nation’s core infrastructure needs without raising taxes,” the group of 20 senators said in a joint statement.

“We look forward to working with our Republican and Democratic colleagues to develop legislation based on this framework to address America’s critical infrastructure challenges.”

News of the additional Republican support now means a bipartisan infrastructure bill has a good chance of picking up 11 GOP votes and overcoming a filibuster.

But there’s still the problem of a half-dozen progressives who are threatening to vote against any bipartisan proposal that doesn’t include more ambitious plans to fight climate change, expand child care and long-term home health care and lower the cost of prescription drugs.

–Updated on June 17 at 10:46 a.m.