Infrastructure deal faces hurdles after bill fails first vote

The infrastructure deal faces hurdles after the bill fails the first vote. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith shares the details.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, Senate lawmakers are looking to revisit that $1 trillion infrastructure package after Republican lawmakers blocked a vote to begin debate yesterday, saying they needed more time. For a look on where things stand, let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Jessica Smith who is tracking the very latest for us from Washington. So Jess, what's the next step here?

JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Akiko, well, we did just hear from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a short time ago, and he said that he still plans to take up this bipartisan deal and the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions before the August recess. So the procedural vote failed yesterday. It failed 51 to 49.

But the bipartisan group is still hoping to finalize that deal soon. They say that they just need more time. They said yesterday they felt like they were getting close and could get there in the next few days. They did, beforehand, ask Schumer for a Monday vote.

Senator Manchin, who is part of this group, told reporters just a few minutes ago that they had agreed to 99% of it as of yesterday. They're still wrapping it up. And we also heard from President Biden yesterday, saying that he thinks this deal will make it through the next procedural vote when they try it again. We are still waiting to hear exact timing on that, but the president stressed that Republicans gave him their word on this agreement.

But this is still a long way away from getting to the president's desk. Speaker Pelosi said again this morning in her weekly press conference that the House would not take up the bipartisan deal until the Senate passes the reconciliation bill. That's the multi-trillion-dollar plan with the rest of President Biden's agenda they're planning on passing with only Democratic votes. So that is a long way off, and not every Democratic Senator is even on board with that plan yet.

Another piece that could complicate things for the bipartisan deal is the rest of the lawmakers in the House. We heard from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chair when we talked to him earlier this week saying he was not a fan of the bipartisan deal. He and about 30 other lawmakers wrote a letter yesterday saying that they want to be involved in those negotiations. They want to have input in what this infrastructure package could look like. Chairman DeFazio did tell me earlier this week that if the Senate deal, whatever they come up with, is a take-it-or-leave-it scenario, he would leave it.

So it's still going to be complicated. If this bipartisan group can finalize their agreement, we still don't know if it's going to be able to make it out of the Senate, and it still faces an uncertain future in the House. So we'll be watching on updates for that group and whenever they schedule the next procedural vote to try it again.