Rachel Maddow Show: Congress infrastructure bill legislation pass House Senate Democrats Republicans President Joe Biden Donald Trump Democratic Party GOP
As last week progressed, and Capitol Hill watchers assessed the likelihood of the House passing a bipartisan infrastructure package, one piece of legislative arithmetic seemed paramount: How many Democrats were prepared to balk? The majority party’s advantage in the chamber has been tiny all year, and Democratic leaders were painfully aware of the fact that if they intended to pass the bill — known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (or BIF) — they could lose no more than three members. When it came time for the floor vote, the Democratic leader ended up losing six votes from their conference — but the proposal passed anyway thanks to 13 votes from the Republican minority. (A total of 19 GOP senators voted for the same bill in August.) And as USA Today reported, that’s created a rather dramatic intra-party controversy for the GOP. For those keeping score, these were the 13 House Republicans who ended up voting for the bipartisan package (in alphabetical order, by last name): To put it mildly, they’re not exactly the most popular members of their conference right now.
