WASHINGTON — The last major infrastructure package approved by Congress came after one of the country’s most liberal senators chipped through her icy relationship with Mitch McConnell.
“We hadn’t really worked on anything for 20 years. We had a cold relationship since the Robert Packwood scandal,” recalled former California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who led negotiations for Democrats on the $300 billion package in 2015. “I took it to … Mitch’s people first and then to him. I said, ‘This is important for Kentucky’ and he agreed. That was really a breakthrough.”
That highway bill won 83 votes in the U.S. Senate, even though it included about $170 billion less than former President Barack Obama had wanted. Still, both parties hold it up as a substantial achievement in updating America’s roads and bridges.
