Democratic Senator Predicts Biden Economic Plan Will Take Weeks to Finish

(Bloomberg) -- Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said Friday that he expects President Joe Biden’s economic agenda won’t get finished and passed until late November, but that Congress will act more quickly on a separate infrastructure bill.

“I think the infrastructure bill will go to Biden’s desk within the next 10 days, and I think the reconciliation bill will be voted on by the Senate right before the Thanksgiving recess,” Kaine said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power with David Westin.”

Kaine was one of a number of Virginia Democrats who had urged the House to pass the bipartisan infrastructure plan weeks ago to aide Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for governor. House action on the legislation, which already cleared the Senate, would have allowed McAuliffe a chance to explain on the campaign trail how he would have used it to help the state, Kaine said.

McAuliffe is seeking to return to the Virginia’s governor’s office but is in a very close contest with Republican Glenn Youngkin. Election Day is Tuesday.

“I do think the announcement of the framework the other day does mean we will get both of these bills done,” Kaine said. “I hope that might help a little bit at the close, but it sure would have been better for Terry had the House sent that infrastructure bill to the president weeks ago.”
 

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