By Steven Allen Adams, The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After months of negotiations, first with U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and later with a group including U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a procedural vote on a bipartisan infrastructure framework passed Wednesday night with more than the 10 Republican votes needed to begin debate.
Manchin, D-W.Va., along with several of the Republicans and Democratic senators who negotiated the bipartisan infrastructure framework, held a press conference Wednesday evening after the cloture vote to begin discussion of the bill, now called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“We have not made a major investment in infrastructure of the United States in the last 30 years,” Manchin said. “Bipartisan is built because of relationships. Relationships are built when there is trust. The more we continue to do things such as this, the more you’ll see more bipartisanship.”
The cloture motion passed 67-32 with 17 Republicans voting yes, avoiding a filibuster. President Joe Biden praised the bipartisan group of senators for coming together to make a deal. The bill is loosely based on Biden’s American Jobs Plan unveiled in April…
