Senate negotiators race to finish infrastructure bill as failed vote looms - POLITICO

It’s not clear if the failure of the bipartisan deal would force an increase in the $3.5 trillion price tag of Democrats' separate proposal.

Chuck Schumer is scheduling a procedural vote for Wednesday to begin debate on a still-evolving bipartisan infrastructure bill.

The Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure negotiators are hustling to finish their bill as Republicans push for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to move a Wednesday test vote that’s likely to fail.

Schumer also offered the bipartisan group more time to negotiate, if Senate Republicans agree to move forward Wednesday.

Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said the bipartisan group needed to discuss Schumer’s remarks on Tuesday before he could say how he will vote on Wednesday.

Schumer’s push to move forward on the bipartisan infrastructure framework comes as Senate Democrats also prepare a $3.5 trillion social spending plan that they expect to wrestle through without GOP buy-in.

John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican close to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the vote will still fail on Wednesday despite Schumer’s entreaties: “How would he expect us to vote on a bill that doesn’t even exist yet.”.

Members of the bipartisan group negotiating the infrastructure package insisted Wednesday’s vote didn’t mean that the talks were ending.

Despite Schumer’s insistence that he would bring the bipartisan bill to the floor as early as Thursday if the text is ready, GOP negotiators reiterated Tuesday that they could not vote with Democrats on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, progressives and key House Democrats are growing increasingly impatient with the bipartisan talks, with some even saying that they hope that the deal falls through

In a meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi hammered Senate Republicans and accused them of attempting to derail the bipartisan talks