trying to show that bipartisanship and that washington can work. that s important for both parties as they try to get a political message out there ahead of the midterms, and clearly there s reasons for both parties to go along with this bipartisan, quote, unquote, hard infrastructure piece. where it does come back to normal partisan lines though is in what they do next, which is moving on to the budget reconciliation bill, the $3.5 trillion of soft infrastructure or human infrastructure. a lot of the democratic policy priorities that we heard talked about as far back as the presidential campaign, things like universal pre-k, child care, paid leave, a lot of the top priorities including combating climate change is important to activist that really have kept the pressure on and of course important to democrats here. it does shake out when you get into how this translates in the house. we have seen moderate democrats already voicing they would like to see a vote in the house on
other bipartisan senators step into the breach there, and got us to the point where we had a working bill framework and then more stop and start on the process front. last weekend it was a question of when the bill text would come, and then when the votes would happen. the senate taking the long way here and not exactly as quick as democrats would have wanted to move on this, and nonetheless arriving at the point where just a few minutes from now as soon as we see senator carper speaker, and chuck schumer will take to the floor and tout the achievement and open the vote. we are expecting in terms of how bipartisan this is going to be, and we have seen procedural votes get 18 and 19 republicans onboard with democrats and it gives you a sense of how bipartisan this bill is going to shake out to be, and a long and winding road here on an issue that has been bipartisan lure in washington for over a decade.
an unending election season. victoria, do stand by. we want to let our viewers know, rita glavin, the person for governor cuomo wrapped up the talk she started at the top of the hour, and governor cuomo expected to speak any moment and when that starts, we will take you there. and ali vitali, let s go back to you and talk about what is next specifically with the bill specifically, and by the way, democrats have the $3.5 trillion budget resolution as well. what is in that plan and when does that vote happen next? reporter: craig, what we can tell you what we have seen on the senate floor here, 19 republicans have voted yes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and once this vote wrapped up we will see chuck schumer move on the reconciliation
past week or so senator graham was diagnosed with covid and we can tell you that he was there in the senate wearing a mask a short time ago as we see senator tom cotton of arkansas there in the distance maskless, and so is lisa murkowski of alaska. let me turn to garrett haake, and he spends a lot of time covering both houses of congress. we can let our viewers and listeners know mitch mcconnell was a yes vote on the infrastructure bill. is that a separate at all? no, mitch mcconnell has said from the word go that infrastructure was something on which he thought there could be bipartisan progress, and i think it s interesting to note his three lieutenants all republican
and once it does start we will take you to the briefing there. also right now, the senate on the cusp of a blockbuster bipartisan break through. it s a big step for president joe biden and something he promised and a lot of folks doubted would actually happen. a major infrastructure bill. in seconds the senate will be holding a final vote to pass, and a live look on the senate floor right now. this is senator tom carper of delaware speaking. we expect senator chuck schumer to address the bill in just a moment. breaking news from the upper chamber. we will go there as well. also, the pandemic intensifying in new dangerous ways. we just crossed 36 million covid cases in our country since all of this started by nbc s tally, and it only took eight days to add 1 million new cases.