- A GOP senator from Tennessee is taking credit for delaying a vote on Biden's
infrastructure plan. - The
Senate is poised to vote on final passage of the $1.2 trillion bill on Tuesday morning. - Sen.
Bill Hagerty touted the fact that he "delayed the August recess" by slowing consideration of the bill.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, a first-term Republican from Tennessee, is taking a victory lap for delaying the passage of President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill.
After months of negotiations, the Senate is poised to vote on the final passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the landmark $1.2 trillion infrastructure package hammered out by a bipartisan group of Senators and the White House, on Tuesday morning.
Hagerty on Monday released a statement with the headline: "Hagerty Successfully Delays and Exposes
"The American public deserves to have the Senate-the World's Greatest Deliberative Body-actually deliberate," he said in the statement. "Because of my refusal to expedite passage of this bill, we did that and allowed taxpayers to see that this infrastructure package is the first step in the Democrats' quadruple bank-shot attempt to usher in a radical vision for America, burdening our children and grandchildren with more debt and making American citizens dependent on the government for virtually everything,"
"While I recognize that I delayed the August recess, the stakes are too high here, and we have successfully begun to expose the true and dangerous intentions of my Democrat colleagues," Hagerty added.
Last Thursday, Hagerty objected to fast-tracking the bill as Congressional leaders attempted to strike a deal to speed up its passage, a step that requires unanimity among all senators. He cited an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimating the legislation would add $256 billion to the federal deficit.
"Despite this news, I was asked to consent to expedite the process and pass it," he said in a statement on Friday. "I could not, in good conscience, allow that to happen at this hour."
On Saturday, Hagerty dug in.
"I'm not slowing the bill down," he told Insider.
The infrastructure bill is on course to pass with substantial GOP support on Tuesday.