The Senate passed the largest piece of industrial policy seen in the U.S. in decades on Tuesday, directing about a quarter of a trillion dollars to bolster high-tech industries.

In an era where lawmakers can’t seem to agree on anything, why did they come together for this?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter.

The Daily is doing a live online event: We follow up with students and faculty from our series Odessa. And we hear from the team who made the documentary. Times subscribers can join us June 10.

Background reading:

The wide margin of support in the Senate reflects a sense of urgency among lawmakers in both parties about shoring up the technological and industrial capacity of the United States.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.