United States President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that a group of bipartisan senators agreed for an infrastructure plan which will focus on rebuilding the infrastructure.
Biden said at White House on Thursday that the Senators have "come together and forged an agreement that will create millions of American jobs, and modernize our American infrastructure to compete with the rest of the world and own the 21st century."
The president sat down with the senators earlier in the day to cap weeks of tense negotiations on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans have squared off over the size and scope of the funding.
He described the deal as "breaking the ice that too often has kept us frozen in place and prevented us from solving the real problem facing the American people."
The deal came together late Wednesday, with the senators agreeing on a $973 billion package over five years, with some $559 billion in new funding.
Biden stressed that the massive plan -- which includes the largest-ever investment in US bridges and public transport -- met his requirement of not raising taxes on anyone making under $400,000 per year.
"We're going to do it all without raising a cent" in new taxes, he said.
Instead, the plan is to boost enforcement of existing tax laws to recover underreported taxes from wealthier Americans.
"No one got everything they wanted in this package. We all gave some to get some because what we did was put first the needs of our country," said Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist Democrat from Arizona.
"This does represent a historic investment in our country's infrastructure."
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy agreed, calling the bill "great progress."
"A bridge is coming near you. Not right away, not tomorrow, not next year," he said. "But we've begun the process."
However, the negotiations are not yet over.
Biden has proposed some $2 trillion in infrastructure spending over eight years, including funding for some of his priorities like climate change mitigation, child care, schools, and social services.
