According to reports, President Joe Biden may finally get his bipartisan infrastructure agreement. After weeks of will-they-or-wont-they drama, Republican and Democratic negotiators finally managed to agree on $550 billion of new spending this week, and on Wednesday, 67 senators voted to move forward with the bill, signaling wide support. Although the effort may still be in limbo, it seems to have finally made progress.Are you still snoring? Are you looking at another tab in your browser window? Perhaps your mind is wandering back to gymnastics for a fifth time today. Look, internet traffic doesnt lie. The legislative odyssey of this administration isn't exactly captivating the imaginations and hearts of the American people. Because I felt that the slightest hint of emotion recognition might convince you to click, I chose a headline about your apathy towards the thing.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis may explain why the bill may actually have a chance to pass. Although the infrastructure deal is a crucial component of Biden's agenda, it is also kind of boring. This has allowed Republicans with genuine interest in legislating, to continue working on it without fearing backlash from their constituents.This bill is so exciting! It is a decent piece of legislation, aside from roads, bridges, and shipping, it also throws billions at clean water, mass transit, rail, and climate-related priorities such as grid modernization, electric vehicles, and other infrastructure. It may also be the key to unlocking other White House agendas: the Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, the two moderate Democrats standing between Bidens legislative plans and oblivion, have said they want this bipartisan bill to pass before they sign on to the several-trillion-dollar reconciliation package, containing everything else Democrats want to do, thats moving in parallel.AdvertisementHowever, neither of these facts seems to have been enough for people to be particularly excited or angry about the legislation.AdvertisementYou can see the ineffective efforts of Donald Trump to undermine the entire effort as proof. Biden may be able to pass the infrastructure bill that he promised, but never delivered. Trump seems to be irritated at this idea and does not want his past (or future) opponent to win a huge and beautiful policy victory. Trump threatened GOPers who supported the bill with primary challenges this week. He warned that the Patriots would never forget what you did. Seventeen GOP senators reacted by shrugging it off. The obvious reason is that America's Fox-binging patriots don't even know its happening. Tucker Carlson is too consumed with fear-mongering over vaccines. Right-wing Twitter trolls are obsessed with Simone Biles' risky decision to go for the gold. Conservative media thrives on a constant culture war, and not road or transit funding.AdvertisementThis all supports the notion that Capitol Hills' legislative process works best when no one is paying any attention to what Simon Bazelon and Matt Yglesias called the Secret Congress theory or governance a few weeks ago. It also fits with the idea that Biden's mild demeanour may be a factor in signing a few laws. It is possible to live in highly polarized times. When the spotlight is off however, it turns out that both Democrats and Republicans can reach compromises on import issues of medium and large size. The Trump administration ended with lawmakers passing a deal to eliminate surprise medical billing and a $35 billion clean-energy bill. The Senate approved a $250 Billion science and technology bill, ostensibly to help us compete against China. This was something that only a few Twitter geeks were excited about.AdvertisementAdvertisementHere are some reasons Congress may do its best bipartisan work while in the dark. The more media and voters focus on an issue, the more it becomes polarizing (think TV coverage as a giant centrifuge that spins lawmakers to their extremes). Republican lawmakers don't want Democratic presidents to be successful and vice versa. This is why they are inclined to oppose their top priorities. Research in political science has shown that presidents who support an issue tend to attract more opposition.However, in this sense, the infrastructure bill does not fit the Secret Congress model. Everyone knows that Biden wants this deal. Biden spent his entire presidential campaign promising bipartisanship. In the beginning stages of this effort, he met with Republican senators in high-profile meetings to try and reach an agreement. The final negotiations were largely done by Republican Ohio Senator. Rob Portman, White House counselor Steve Ricchetti and Rob Portman, who were Biden's closest aides. Trump is right: If Republicans pass this bill, it will be a huge win for the White House. But, unless they're trying to drag Biden along and speed up the legislative clock (which seems kind of unlikely at the moment), it seems like a critical mass GOP Senators are willing to work with Biden even if that means giving the White House an extra boost.AdvertisementThe greater the chance of legislation passing, the more dull it is.We are witnessing something, I believe, that is an addendum for Secret Congress: The rule on boring Congress. The greater the chance of it passing, the more boring a piece is.Infrastructure spending is a dull topic that voters generally support, but don't care as much about as health care and immigration. Both parties have long considered it a good idea, with the only problem being how to pay for it. We don't know everything about this bill, but there are some outlines. However, the legislative text is clear. It was clearly intended to be non-offensive for almost all parties. Republicans refused to agree to tax increases, so negotiators used a lot of budget gimmicks to find a way to fund it with no tax hikes other than cryptocurrency. Sorry, laser-eyes on Twitter. The plan to privatize large swathes of infrastructure was shocking to progressives. It even appeared to be included in the bill for a brief moment. It was dropped and reduced to a small fraction of the bill. The bill provides funding for climate-related priorities like grid modernization or electric vehicles. However, it is not enough to offend semi-moderate Republicans who want other things in the bill. It's basically pure vanilla.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementVanilla isn't bad. Sometimes vanilla is all you need. It also highlights something about Washington's potential bipartisanship zone. This bill might not pass if it does. When the cost of inaction is clear to everyone, there are truly devastating emergencies. This was the case with the coronavirus in March 2020. Sometimes, the weight of electoral politics is so great that one party has to bow. This happened when Mitch McConnell signed a new COVID relief law last December as he prepared for the Georgia runoffs. Then there's the boring stuff, issues that make terrible TV and Facebook posts. After a long summer of negotiations, it might fix some tracks. Bipartisan legislation is unlikely to solve the major, important issues you care about.
