Omar breaks ranks, votes against infrastructure bill

MINNEAPOLIS – Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was the only member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to break party ranks on a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the House late Friday.

Despite the defections of Omar and other progressives, the package passed the House after Democrats resolved a standoff in their ranks to seal the deal.

Omar said she still wasn’t willing to vote for the infrastructure bill without passage first of a $1.85 trillion spending plan known as the Build Back Better Act. That vote is expected later this month.

Omar and other progressives had held up the infrastructure bill to pressure moderates to back the larger bill.