Australia's ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd is confident laws backing in the AUKUS deal will pass through the Congress, describing it as "a complex process of sausage making”.
A group of Republicans moved to stall AUKUS, an agreement which would enable Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the United States, as leverage for increased defence spending by the Biden administration.
Mr Rudd said all bills dealt with by US lawmakers attracted "pretty colourful debate", but progress was being made on the AUKUS laws.
"In my own engagements with committee chairs and ranking members, it's been quite a remarkable level of bipartisan support," Mr Rudd said in Canberra on Wednesday.
"So far, we have achieved massive progress both with the administration and with the relevant Senate committees on this.
"But I also know it’s a complex process of sausage making."
Asked if Australia needed to invest more money in the submarine industrial base, Mr Rudd said no one he had met in the US "challenged what we're proposing to do".
The former Labor prime minister described US politics as a "complex beast" when asked what preparations he was making for a possible second Donald Trump presidency.
"That’s what we have with our robust democracies," he said.
"Our job as the Australian embassy in Washington is to work with both sides of the aisle."
Mr Rudd said he had worked comfortably with Republican House and Senate leaders and with former members of the Trump administration.
"What the good burghers of the United States choose to do in their own electoral process is a matter for them," he said.
Meanwhile, the federal opposition accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of changing the government's approach to Israel's borders as "part of a backroom deal to avoid an embarrassing factional fight over AUKUS at the Labor national conference".
Mr Albanese told parliament there had been "no unilateral action" on the issue.
A number of Labor branches and unions have expressed concern over nuclear-powered submarines in the lead-up to the conference next week.
