Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a strong message to his Republican colleagues by defiantly telling them he still has 'every intention' of passing ambitious infrastructure legislation totaling nearly $5trillion by the end of summer.
The Democrat's remarks on the Senate floor Thursday come a day after Republicans struck down the smaller of two spending packages in a procedural vote on Wednesday.
'As majority leader I have every intention of passing both major infrastructure packages - the bipartisan infrastructure framework and a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions - before we leave for the August recess," Schumer said.
'The Senate is going to keep working on both tracks of infrastructure in order to achieve them.'
The Wednesday vote was a setback to Democrats pushing President Joe Biden's ambitious legislative agenda.
The final vote was 49 for it and 51 against. Not a single Republican voted for the $1.2trillion package, including any of the senators who are working with Democrats to come to an agreement on a bipartisan bill.
Many of the Republican negotiators expressed concern over voting for a spending package they haven't yet seen.
Schumer, who switched his vote to a no at the end, said he did it so he could 'move to reconsider the vote at a future time.'
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer defended holding Wednesday's procedural vote, saying it was time to move the legislative process forward
Democrats needed 10 Republican votes to reach the 60 senator supermajority to advance the legislation.
The second spending package, which has no Republican support, is Biden's $3.5trillion 'human' infrastructure package of social programs, including free pre-K and community college, expanded paid family and medical leave, environmental programs and immigration reform.
Passing the second bill through a process called budget reconciliation would mean Democrats only need a simple majority - which they currently hold in the Senate - for it to pass.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney is one of the lawmakers advocating to delay the vote until Monday to give them more time to negotiate
Schumer said both bills are
