Bipartisan Senate group looks to cryptocurrency tax revenue to pay for infrastructure package

The $1.2 trillion Senate infrastructure package is expected to have enough votes on Wednesday to pass after weeks of negotiations between Republican and Democratic senators. The spending is planned to be offset through several mechanisms, including an estimated $28 billion from applying information reporting requirements to cryptocurrencies, according to a fact sheet reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

More than $200 billion is planned to be repurposed from certain unused COVID-19 relief funds, about $53 billion from states returning unused enhanced unemployment benefits, and $50 billion from recouping fraudulently paid benefits from the enhanced program. Negotiators agreed to save $49 billion by delaying a Medicare rebate rule. They also project that $56 billion in revenues will come in, thanks to the added economic growth spurred by the new infrastructure.

Included among the planned spending is $110 billion of new funds for roads, bridges, and major projects, $66 billion in rail investment, $73 billion in clean energy transmission and power infrastructure, and $39 billion of new investment to modernize transit, according to a fact sheet released by the White House on Wednesday.

The Senate is planning to move forward with the plan on Wednesday evening, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer telling reporters earlier in the day that he intends to hold a vote to begin debate on the bill.

“Tonight, I am intending to call a vote to move to proceed to the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” the New York Democrat said. “And I believe we have the votes for that.”

Separately, Democrats are planning a much larger spending package meant to address what the White House has termed “human infrastructure.” That package is planned to be rammed through the Senate with no Republican support by avoiding the filibuster through a budgetary process called reconciliation.