Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
- 13 House Republicans voted with most Democrats to pass a $550 billion infrastructure bill.
- The bill passed the Senate 69-30 in August, but Kevin McCarthy urged Republicans not to vote for it.
- Republicans also took issue with Democrats linking the bill to Biden's Build Back Better plan.
The House of Representatives on late Friday passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill with 13 Republicans joining most Democrats in voting to send the bill to President Joe Biden's desk.
Known formally as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, this key part of Biden's legislative agenda has languished for nearly three months amid stalled negotiations between feuding moderates and progressives.
The bill includes a massive infusion of federal money to repair roads, highways, and bridges, and improve broadband connections, including billions of dollars for creating a network of electric vehicle chargers and modernizing bus and rail systems.
As a result of negotiations between 10 centrist senators – half Republicans and half Democrats – the bill garnered 19 Senate Republican votes in August, including that of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Texas Sen. John Cornyn told reporters ahead of the vote that McConnell "wanted to help to try and demonstrate the Senate isn't completely broken."
But by the time the House voted on the bill, almost three months had passed, and House Republicans came to see the bill as inextricably connected to Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social spending bill, which they strongly oppose.
Progressive Democrats, for their part, refused to vote for the infrastructure bill until the social spending bill had been agreed upon. Six House progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, voted to sink the legislation.
But the GOP lawmakers voting in favor of the bill provided a critical boost that got it over the finish line, bucking many party leaders. Former President Donald Trump had urged Republicans to vote against the bill and often trashed it, while Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that any Republican who votes for the bill would be a "traitor."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy whipped against the bill and predicted at a news conference last week that almost no Republicans would vote for it. But ultimately, 13 Republicans defied him and voted to send the bill to Biden's desk.
Here's a list of the House Republicans who voted yes:
- Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska
- Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
- Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York
- Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
- Rep. John Katko of New York
- Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
- Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York
- Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia
- Rep. Tom Reed of New York
- Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey
- Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan
- Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey
- Rep. Don Young of Alaska
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