President Biden signed into law the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill on November 15th. The bill enjoyed bipartisan support including the support of Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer and Congressman Don Bacon. The law will allocate new funding to projects to improve roads, bridges, broadband, and water and energy utilities.
Although the infrastructure bill earned bi-partisan support, the Biden Administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill face an uphill battle for their infrastructure reconciliation bill, called Build Back Better, that originally aimed to spend $3.5 trillion but has since been paired down to $1.75 trillion. The House passed the Build Back Better bill with no Republican support and faces tough days ahead in the Senate with moderate Democrat Senators opposing tax provisions and the higher costs associated with the House’s version. The Senate is split with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. The bill is unlikely to garner any Republican votes which would require all 50 Democrats to vote yes and Vice President Harris would be the tie breaking vote in favor of passage. The House’s version of the bill did not include the IRS Reporting proposal that the credit union system strongly opposed which would have required credit unions to report the gross deposits and withdrawals on all member accounts, including business accounts, over $600. Despite the proposal not being included in the House’s version, CUNA and the League continue to lobby against the proposal as the Senate considers the bill. All three Nebraska Congressman voted against the Build Back Better bill.
Passage of the Build Back Better bill in the Senate has its challenges but if movement to pass the bill is made it will likely be a scaled down version of the House bill which would put the scaled down version back on the laps of Democrats in the House to accept.
