Lawmakers pushed to finalize an infrastructure agreement Sunday, but said they were still struggling to resolve a dispute over how much to increase public-transit funding, a snag that could delay their goal of advancing the bill in a Senate vote early this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. GOP senators had blocked efforts by Democrats to begin consideration of the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Wednesday, saying that too much of the package remained unresolved. Lawmakers in a bipartisan group crafting the legislation said late last week that they hoped to finish in time to reverse that outcome in a second vote in the next few days. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the lead GOP negotiator of the bipartisan group, said Sunday on ABC that negotiators were “about 90% of the way there” in reaching an agreement, but were still battling over how much money to direct to public transit. Democrats have pushed to include a larger share of transit funding. The transit-funding dispute threatened to extend the already-delayed timeline for the infrastructure bill. A group of 11 Republican senators wrote to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) last week, saying they would vote to start debate on the bill, provided that the major issues are resolved and its official cost has been estimated. If all Democrats also support the legislation, that would allow it to clear the 60-vote threshold.
