Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Sunday that the bipartisan infrastructure bill deal is near completion and slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s threat to hold off voting on the negotiated deal until a larger bill is passed through reconciliation by the Senate.
“We’re about 90% of the way there — I feel good about getting that done this week,” Portman told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. Portman’s optimism on Sunday indicated that negotiations have improved since late last week.
Democrats were making a behind-the-scenes push to move some funding away from highways to increase federal funding for transit. The senator was so frustrated with the state of negotiations on Thursday that he told reporters they might just drop highway funding from the bill entirely.
“We have one issue outstanding and we’re not getting much response from the Democrats on it — it’s about mass transit,” Portman said Sunday.
Pelosi, in a separate interview earlier on “This Week,” said that she plans to stick with her decision to hold any vote on the bipartisan deal until after the Senate passes a larger infrastructure package through reconciliation.
