Both Sens. Lieberman and Nelson voted against the infrastructure bill. | AP, Reuters Photos Both parties block jobs bills

Rival Democratic and Republican jobs bills failed in the Senate on Thursday, the latest sign of the partisan gridlock gripping Washington as Americans look for relief from high unemployment and a sagging economy.

The widely anticipated defeat of the Democrats’ Rebuild America Jobs Act, which would have provided $60 billion for transportation infrastructure projects, marked the third blow to President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda. His sweeping $447 billion jobs package was blocked by all Republicans and two Democrats last month, while a smaller piece of that legislation — $35 billion to pay the salaries of teachers, cops and firefighters — suffered the same fate.


Senate Democrats on Thursday came up nine votes short of the 60 needed to advance their infrastructure bill past a key procedural hurdle. The vote was 51-49, with all Republicans and two members of the Democratic caucus — Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — voting no.

Republicans have dismissed the jobs bills as “more failed stimulus” and object to the tax hikes on millionaires Democrats have proposed to pay for the spending. But Democrats have hammered the GOP for obstructing Obama’s jobs effort and believe voters will punish Republicans in 2012 for siding with the rich over working-class Americans.

“Republicans have once again chosen to protect millionaires and billionaires instead of creating jobs for the middle class,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement after the votes.

Obama, who has infuriated some Democrats on Capitol Hill for attacking a “do-nothing” Congress, aimed his fire this time squarely at Republicans. He said it “makes no sense” for the entire 47-member GOP caucus to block three of his jobs proposals, especially when polls show an overwhelming number of Americans back infrastructure spending.

“The American people deserve to know why their Republican representatives in Washington refuse to put some of the workers hit hardest by the economic downturn back on the job rebuilding America,” Obama said in a statement. “They deserve an explanation as to why Republicans refuse to step up to the plate and do what’s necessary to create jobs and grow the economy right now.”

The GOP alternative bill, an extension of funding for federal highways and transportation programs, also went down in defeat, blocked by Democrats on a 47-53 vote. Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans, while Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted with Democrats.

Next week, the Senate will turn to another piece of Obama’s American Jobs Act, a measure passed the GOP-controlled House that would repeal a law requiring governments to withhold a small percentage of contractor payments. Obama has indicated he would sign the bill as is, though Reid has said he will try to amend it so that contractors who cheat on their taxes are still impacted.

The dual votes Thursday came as both parties have tried to claim the mantle of job creation. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who lives six miles from the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River in 2007, has made the case in recent weeks that her jobs bill would both repair the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and employ hundreds of thousands of construction workers.

A quarter of the country’s 600,000 bridges are structurally deficient, she said, and 13 percent of construction workers remain unemployed today.

“These are not acceptable realities in this country,” Klobuchar said on the Senate floor before the vote.

Her bill would provide $50 billion to repair and modernize transportation infrastructure, including $27 billion for roads and bridges, $9 billion for transit systems and $4 billion for the high-speed rail network. It would also allocate $10 billion in seed money to create an infrastructure bank to spur additional private and public investments for other transportation projects.

It would have paid for the infrastructure package by imposing a 0.7 percent tax on income in excess of $1 million.

The GOP infrastructure proposal, introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), would extend funding for roads, highways and other infrastructure projects for two years. It also would give states broader discretion on how to spend transportation money, curb what Republicans call “job-killing” environmental regulations, and hand Congress greater oversight authority over agency rules.

Hatch, however, spent most of his time on the Senate floor bashing the Democratic bill, arguing that the new infrastructure bank would expand the federal bureaucracy and possibly subject taxpayers to future government bailouts.

“It is not about creating jobs. And it is not about engineering a more efficient and fair tax code. No, this is the same tune, different song — a bill for more spending, financed with new taxes,” Hatch said. “It remains baffling to me that this is all that the other side has to offer.”

Lieberman, who is not seeking reelection next year and voiced opposition to the two previous Democratic jobs bills, said he couldn’t support legislation that increased spending — even if it was fully paid for.

“While the goals of the infrastructure bill are worthy, I believe that the most important thing we can do to improve our economy, reduce unemployment, and create jobs is to dramatically reduce the debt,” the one-time Democratic vice presidential nominee said in a statement.

“We cannot continue to spend money we don’t have … Unless we can put our economy on sound financial footing by reining in our debt, all additional stimulus efforts will be for naught.”