The struggles for interpretation had long been underway when the senators returned to the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday morning to vote on the major infrastructure package.

The Democrats hailed the bill as a milestone for the modernization of the country - and also for democracy in America.

Ultimately, both camps showed that Washington could overcome the party-political division, said Transport Minister Pete Buttigieg, whose department will become the operational center of the investment offensive.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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The Republicans, for their part, demonstrated a degree of pragmatism that many would not have believed them capable of, given the party's drift into populism: for years there has been a consensus that there is an urgent need to invest in the country's public infrastructure.

The attempts have failed for years.

Now they have made it, said representatives of the moderate party wing.

Both sides want to be in the right light

Of course, the statements on both sides implied a certain self-praise: for the Democrats, the approval of part of the Republican parliamentary group for their central project - the vote in the Senate was 69 to 30, so 19 Republicans joined the 50 Democrats - that the Accusation that the Biden presidency is pursuing a socialist agenda obviously cannot apply. And the Republicans use the example to refute the accusation that they are unscrupulous blockers who put party-political calculations above the welfare of the country.

Circumstances meant that, despite the appreciation of the infrastructure project, no great harmony could arise. Under pressure from the party left, the Democrats flanked the draft with a second trillion dollar package, which, as it were, deals with the social infrastructure and certainly cannot hope for cross-faction approval. And while the Democratic congressional leadership around Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi was busy keeping the progressive wing on board, the Republicans around minority leader Mitch McConnell were faced with an old problem: Donald Trump.

The former president, who unsuccessfully pushed for an infrastructure package during his tenure, called the draft a "loser package for America" ​​and a "terrible deal" that made Republicans look "weak, foolish and stupid".

He openly threatened to challenge all those senators who supported the draft in the party primaries with candidates who followed his line.

Infrastructure in the strict sense

The moderate Republicans who, as part of an intergroup group, forged the compromise on the trillion dollar package weeks ago and were supported by McConnell, had ensured that the draft was limited to infrastructure in the strict sense of the word: it is about Investments in road and bridge construction, the rail network, power lines and water and energy supply.

The intergroup argues that the draft is fully counter-financed - among other things, unused funds from the corona rescue packages should be diverted. However, the budget office of the Congress had come to the conclusion that the project would increase the deficit by 256 billion dollars over the next ten years - a circumstance that had once again led to delays in the Senate in the past few days.