Joe Biden’s investment plans advance in Congress

Published on : 08/25/2021 – 00:21

Joe Biden applauded Tuesday, August 24, the advance in Congress of his two titanic plans for infrastructure investments and social spending, totaling nearly $ 5,000 billion, which have overcome divisions among democrats.

The votes on their final adoption are not expected until the fall. Until then, negotiations between Democrats promise to be tense to reconcile the positions of the left wing and the more centrist.

They only have a very narrow majority in Congress and must therefore reach the greatest possible consensus if they are to have these two plans approved, which would mark the tenure of Joe Biden profoundly.

“A big step”

“Today the House of Representatives has taken a big step towards historic investments that will transform America,” the Democratic president said in a televised speech. “These investments will decrease the expenses of families and not just relieve them a little. In addition, we will make essential investments, overdue for too long, in infrastructure,” he added.

Concretely, the House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a resolution which will make it possible to bypass a possible blockage of Republicans in the Senate, in order to be able to adopt in the fall, with only Democratic votes if necessary, the “most consistent” social reform plan. in the United States since the 1930s.

Education, health, the job market or even the fight against climate change, this resolution provides for $ 3.5 trillion in investments over ten years, a staggering amount almost equivalent to Germany’s GDP in 2020 ($ 3.8 trillion) . It was adopted by 220 votes, all Democrats, against 212, all Republicans.

Next deadline September 15

This resolution, however, only specifies the total amount and the main lines of the plan for “investments in American families”, as Joe Biden defines it. Democratic parliamentarians must now draft its precise content by September 15. The negotiations will be arduous: two centrist Democratic senators have already announced that they would not support such an amount. No date has yet been set for a vote.

At the same time and to appease the moderates, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged on Tuesday to submit to a vote by September 27 the Biden plan for investment in infrastructure, amounting to 1,200 billion. of dollars. The Senate has already approved this project on August 10. Rarely, he had been supported by more than a third of Republican senators.

It provides for $ 550 billion in new federal spending on roads, bridges, transportation, but also high-speed internet and the environment. With the reorientation of other existing public funding, it totals $ 1.2 trillion – the equivalent of Spain’s GDP in 2020.

With AFP