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The estimated $740 billion economic package from Democrats is nowhere near what President Joe Biden first envisioned with his effort to rebuild America’s public infrastructure and family support systems. That had a price tag of $4 trillion and it stalled in Congress. The slimmer but still substantial compromise package is now on track toward Senate passage on Sunday. It's made up of health care, climate change and deficit-reduction strategies, in hopes of tackling inflation and bringing down deficits. A major component is capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors in the Medicare program at $2,000 a year.

Over five decades in Washington, Joe Biden knew that the way to influence was to be in the room where it happens. But in the second year of his presidency, some of Biden’s most striking, legacy-defining legislative victories have come about by staying out of it. It's a counterintuitive turn for Biden, who's long promoted his decades of Capitol Hill experience. Biden’s aides chalk up his victories to the fact that he's playing the role of cheerleader rather than legislative quarterback. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana says that in Biden's heart, he's a U.S. senator. And because of that, Tester says Biden "understands allowing this to work is how you get it done.”

A divided Senate has voted to start debating Democrats’ election-year economic bill. The sprawling measure contains many of President Joe Biden’s climate, energy, health and tax goals. United Democrats pushed the 755-page measure toward Senate approval early Sunday. Before reaching final passage, senators plodded through a nonstop pile of amendments that seemed certain to last hours. The package is a dwindled version of earlier multitrillion-dollar bills from Biden that Democrats failed to advance. The measure has become a partisan battleground over inflation, gasoline prices and other issues that polls show are driving voters. The House, where Democrats have a slender majority, could give the legislation final approval next Friday.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's wife says her husband wants to subpoena the records of the country’s top infectious disease expert. Paul’s wife, Kelley, made the comments during the political speaking at the Fancy Farm picnic Saturday in western Kentucky. She waded into the dispute between her husband and Dr. Anthony Fauci while promoting her husband's bid for a third term. Sen. Paul is being challenged by Democrat Charles Booker, a former state lawmaker. He told the crowd that Paul votes against the interests of Kentuckians. Booker denounced Paul as a “terrible senator” and an “embarrassment” to the state.