The United States’ House of Representatives approved a trillion-dollar (€866 billion) package of road and other infrastructure projects after Democrats resolved a months-long stand-off between progressives and moderates.
The House passed the measure 228-206 late on Friday, prompting prolonged cheers from the relieved Democratic side of the chamber, notching a victory that US president Joe Biden and his party had become increasingly anxious to claim.
Thirteen Republicans, mostly moderates, supported the legislation while six of Democrats' furthest-left members – including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri – opposed it.
Approval of the Bill, which would create legions of jobs and improve broadband, water supplies and other public works, saw it whisked to the desk of a president whose approval ratings have dropped and whose nervous party got a cold shoulder from voters in this week’s elections.
Yet despite the win, Democrats endured a setback when they postponed a vote on a second, even larger Bill until later this month.
That 10-year, $1.85 trillion measure bolstering health, family and climate change programmes was side-tracked after moderates demanded a cost estimate on the sprawling measure from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The postponement dashed hopes that the day would produce a double-barrelled win for Mr Biden with passage of both Bills.
But in an evening breakthrough brokered by Mr Biden and House leaders, five moderates later agreed to back that bill if CBO's estimates are consistent with preliminary numbers that White House and congressional tax analysts have provided.
The agreement, in which politicians promised to vote on the social and environment Bill by the week of November 15th, stood as a significant step towards a House vote that could ultimately ship it to the Senate.
“Generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st century,” Mr Biden said in a written statement early on Saturday. – Associated Press