Bipartisan group to issue ‘promising’ statement on infrastructure path forward

A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators is preparing a statement for this afternoon on what they see as the path forward on a compromise $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.

The statement is expected to inform colleagues that there will be 60 votes next week to begin debating infrastructure legislation and is intended to quell concerns over whether progress in the bipartisan talks are stalling.

GOP members of the bipartisan group say the procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday afternoon by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is “premature” because they still need to hammer out the final details and draft legislative text of their proposal.

“I think there will probably be statement coming out after the vote that will be very promising,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “Everybody knows what the movement is right now.”

A group of Republican senators have signed a letter to Schumer informing him that they will be ready to vote to proceed to the infrastructure debate next week.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Wednesday morning that there will be at least 10 Republicans willing to vote to take up a bipartisan infrastructure package next week.

Romney said Schumer “wants to know whether there are at least 10 Republicans that will [vote to] get on the bill next week and there are.”

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), one of the members of the broader group of 22 senators who has called for bipartisan action on infrastructure, said that he is among the signatories on the letter to Schumer.