The Senate on August 11 approved a $3.5 trillion budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2022 by a vote of 50-49.
The bill will end up focusing largely on “soft infrastructure” items and climate change, but its passage by the Senate now sends both tracks of President Biden’s infrastructure priorities to the House of Representatives, where House leaders have said their fates are intertwined.
The Senate passed the trillion-dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on August 10 and immediately moved on to consider the $3.5 trillion budget resolution and an extensive list of amendments to that legislation. Quick action by the Senate was necessary because House Democrats have pledged not to consider the infrastructure bill until the Senate also approved the budget resolution measure.
The budget resolution ultimately cleared the Senate along party lines, after which the Senate adjourned for summer recess, with a return date of September 13. Senate committees have been instructed to work on their parts of the budget resolution legislation over recess and to have their work done by September 15.
Ultimately, the success of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been tied to the budget resolution since the announcement of the framework. The two infrastructure tracks represent much of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan unveiled by the White House earlier this year.
The House is currently in recess, but according to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., will return August 23 to vote on the Senate-approved budget resolution, among other matters. Before Rep. Hoyer declared that the House will return to work in August, the chamber was scheduled to be out of session until September 20.
