The US Senate has voted 69 to 30 to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill (H.R. 3684, the INVEST in America Act) that includes $550 billion in new spending on highways, bridges, waterways, transit, airports, the electric grid, and broadband. The legislation resulted from months of negotiations by President Biden and a group of Democratic and Republican Senators to reach an agreement to increase spending on infrastructure without tax rate increases. The Senate bill includes other tax and non-tax offsets, including a new cryptocurrency information reporting requirement that is the subject of ongoing debate and a measure reinstating Superfund excise taxes on chemicals.
Following passage of the infrastructure bill, the Senate began debate on a fiscal year 2022 budget resolution that would provide reconciliation instructions for legislation to be considered later this year featuring up to $3.5 trillion in spending and tax relief provisions that would be offset in part by corporate and individual tax increases. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has stated that he will continue to delay the start of a scheduled August recess until the Senate has completed work on the budget resolution.
The House currently is in recess until mid-September. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has stated that the House will not act on the Senate infrastructure bill until work has been completed on a budget reconciliation bill. At this point, it appears that the House and Senate could take some months to pass a final reconciliation tax bill before the end of this year.
