Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Wednesday that an infrastructure bill set to get a vote in the House will not be taken up in the Senate.
“So naturally this nonsense is not going anywhere in the Senate. It will just join the list of absurd House proposals that were only drawn up to show fealty to the radical left,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
The House is set to vote Wednesday on a $1.5 trillion green infrastructure plan that would provide billions to repair the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges while setting aside funds for broadband, schools and hospitals. It would also require states to commit to reducing greenhouse gases and other climate measures in order to receive funding.
President Trump has threatened to veto the House bill, and the Senate has already passed its own infrastructure bill in committee.
McConnell, on Wednesday, argued that the House bill was a “thousand-page cousin of the Green New Deal, masquerading as a highway bill.”
“This so-called infrastructure bill would siphon billions in funding from actual infrastructure to follow into climate change policies,” he added.
The infrastructure bill is expected to pass the House largely along party lines. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last month that passing a bill could help put pressure on McConnell to take action.
“As you know, the Grim Reaper said nothing is ever going any place in the Senate,” Pelosi said, referring to McConnell.
“But there is tremendous interest in the country in building the infrastructure,” she added.