Senate Republicans launched a filibuster on Wednesday in the Senate to block a $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Biden negotiated with a bipartisan group of senators.
The procedural vote in the Senate required 60 votes to pass, but Republicans complained that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hurried the bill to a vote before it was ready.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell exclaimed before the vote, “Around here, we typically write the bills before we vote on them.”
The entire Republican caucus voted to stop debate on the bipartisan bill, while the whole Democratic caucus voted to proceed. But, at the last minute, Schumer switched his vote to the GOP, allowing him to bring the bill back up for a vote at a later date.
Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had pleaded with Schumer to postpone the vote until next week to give bipartisan negotiators more time to iron out the final aspects of the deal.
After the unsuccessful vote, the bipartisan negotiators issued a statement indicating they will keep working to reach an agreement “in the coming days.”
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