Why Democrats' infrastructure bill could end up a long way from the plan Biden introduces

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

The White House on Wednesday rolled out the details of President Biden's major new infrastructure and climate plan, the first part of a two-step proposal. Biden is expected to discuss the roughly $2 trillion American Jobs Plan in a speech later in the day, but what he describes may be a far cry from what Congress eventually tries to pass.

Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman suggests you don't hold your breath until Biden signs anything into law; it may be a while before the House settles on its version, and even longer before the Senate gets to work on it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) target date for passage in the lower chamber — July 4 — is overly optimistic, Sherman wrote on Twitter, before breaking down the reasons why the process will take months.

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In the end, Sherman believes Congress will combine items from Biden's two-part plan into one massive bill that will only get through the Senate via reconciliation (since Republicans likely won't co-sign) sometime in September, leaving a lot of time for revisions.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.