Democratic negotiator: ‘I believe we will’ have infrastructure bill ready on Monday

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the bipartisan group of senators working on a massive infrastructure bill, on Sunday said he believes the legislation will be ready on Monday after it failed a first vote on the Senate floor last week.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Warner was asked by host Martha MacCallum if the senators would “have that bill in place for everybody to look at” Monday.

“I believe we will,” Warner said. “The one thing I hear all across Virginia in the last couple of days: People want us to invest in our infrastructure.”

“If you step back, you know, we have actually are investing at about half the rate that we invested in our infrastructure as we did in the 1990s,” he added.

The Senate last week voted against beginning debate on infrastructure. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) changed his vote to “no” to bring it back up for a vote.

MacCallum also asked Warner on Sunday if unspent COVID-19 relief funds would be used as part of this infrastructure bill.

“We are and have agreed jointly on about roughly $70 billion of funds that were not spent that will be redeployed to help pay for this infrastructure package,” Warner said. “The challenge is, Martha, you got folks who want to make big, bold statements but sometimes don’t want to roll up their sleeves, get into the details and make the very hard choices about where we find these pay-fors.”