Sanders Will Support Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal If Democrats Support Reconciliation Package

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. has said he will back the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure plan if his caucus will also support the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

The reconciliation bill has a number of different policy proposals the Vermont Senator has long supported, such as expanding Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing, funding childcare, healthcare, and education, and combating climate change.

“I am willing to go along with the bipartisan bill if there is 100 percent agreement on the part of the Democrats who are negotiating this that they are going to go along with the reconciliation package,” Sanders said in an interview with Krystal Ball. “There will not be a bipartisan bill unless there is a reconciliation bill,” he added.

Sanders believes the investments in the bipartisan bill are sensible as they will fund roads, bridges, water, and broadband, but he did voice some of his criticisms for the bipartisan package.

“This process doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, you got needs out there. Should we invest heavily in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, roads, bridges, water, broadband, all of those are huge issues? Of course, we should do it. My own preference would have been to do it in one bill.” Sanders said.

“The way things are gonna be funded do not make a lot of sense to me, and the reason for that is because Republicans don’t want to raise any taxes on the wealthy or large corporations,” he added.

Sanders also criticized how some of the country’s infrastructure will be privatized under the new bill. “The idea that we privatize infrastructure that we give over roads, bridges, and parking meters to the private sector is a very foolish idea,” he added.

Senators have finalized and unveiled the full text of the bipartisan bill and will authorize more than half a trillion dollars in new spending for the nation’s infrastructure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes the bill will pass in a “matter of days,” after considering “all relevant amendments.”

The bipartisan plan, along with the reconciliation package, are part of a two-track strategy the Biden administration and Democrats have to further the president’s economic agenda and get Americans back to work.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, neither bill will be voted on in the House unless both pass the Senate. The Senate is expected to begin the reconciliation process after the bipartisan bill is passed.