Finally, overnight, the House of Representatives passed the Physical Infrastructure bill that had passed the US Senate with a bipartisan vote of 69-30 in August.
And happily, there were 13 Republicans who supported the legislation in the House, making the legislation truly a bipartisan accomplishment, with a final vote of 228-206.
This is a major victory for Joe Biden and the Democrats, despite the tortuous delay of more than two months, and the $1.2 trillion of spending on roads, airports, bridges, rail systems, broadband, environmental cleanup, and electric vehicles will advance the American economy dramatically!
The nation desperately needed this legislation, and it will help the Democratic argument to keep them in the majority in the 2022 Midterm Congressional Elections a year from now!
However, with all of the excitement that this legislation engenders, it IS a fact that without the 13 Republicans, including a number who voted to impeach Donald Trump the second time, the legislation would NOT have passed, as 6 “Progressives” voted against it, including
Jamaal Bowman of New York
Cori Bush of Missouri
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan
The latter four have been called the “Squad”, and the first two have been considered to be additions to the group by the news media, and seemingly, have indicated they are glad to be part of the group.
Four of the 13 House Republicans who supported the legislation also supported impeachment of Donald Trump in January 2021:
Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (not running for reelection)
Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio (not running for reelection)
Fred Upton of Michigan
John Katko of New York
Even without the other nine Republicans, those four principled Republican House members who did the right thing on both impeachment and the infrastructure bill, basically saved the legislation, as with their votes alone, the legislation would have passed 219-215!
The present House of Representatives has 221 Democrats, and 213 Republicans, so there is a working majority of just three members, although the Democrats have eight more members than the Republicans.