The White House’s message still injected fresh urgency into the infrastructure debate on the very day that a bloc of Senate lawmakers from both parties could release new details about their roughly $1 trillion, five-year infrastructure compromise. That package already faces steep political odds in the Capitol, where Democrats have panned the proposal as insufficient, raising concerns that it spends too little — and neglects their priorities, including climate change.
Some in the party even signaled they would vote against it unless there is some sort of deal in place to advance it in tandem with another measure that encapsulates the nearly $4 trillion in spending Biden has outlined recently as part of his jobs and families-focused economic packages.
Emerging from a meeting at the Capitol with senior administration officials, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said the message from Ricchetti is that the White House is “giving it a week or ten days more, and that’s about it.”
“And then we move along with reconciliation for everything,” added Yarmuth, referring to a legislative maneuver that would allow Democrats in the Senate in particular to advance infrastructure package with 51 votes instead of 60. Yarmuth, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, is prepping the resolution to set the process in motion.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who also attended the session, confirmed she heard he same timeline after the meeting. She said White House aides told party lawmakers that they are “just going to wait a little bit longer to see if anything can come out of this.”
But Jayapal echoed many of her colleagues in expressing skepticism that any deal could come together, stressing that Democrats favor bigger spending, and more aggressive reforms, than Republicans have been willing to stomach.
“This is the same Republican Party that didn’t give us a single vote on the American Rescue plan, that didn’t vote for the January 6 commission — the same Republican Party that, six weeks ago, Mitch McConnell said 100 percent of his focus is on stopping the Biden administration,” she continued. “So forgive me if I’m skeptical.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Ricchetti was updating Democrats on the near-term outlook but was not drawing a line in the sand on timing.
“He said that we are certainly going to know where things stand on infrastructure talks generally in the next week to 10 days, and that we can then take stock overall," Bates said. "But he did not set a deadline or cutoff.”
With Democrats growing only more impatient, the comment threatened to add more pressure on lawmakers as they labor to craft a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, a goal the president himself shares after shepherding passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package through Congress without GOP votes.
An earlier round of talks — between Biden and a top Republican negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) — collapsed earlier this month after the two sides could not find common ground over the total price tag for an infrastructure package or the best way to pay for it. Since then, a new group of 10 Senate Democrats and Republicans has emerged with what they hope is a viable alternative, a plan they are set to unveil as soon as Tuesday.
Their proposal is expected to call for about $974 billion in infrastructure spending over five years, which comes to about $1.2 trillion totaled over eight years, The Post previously reported. About half of it constitutes new spending above what the government might normally spend on infrastructure-related programs and agencies, which is more than GOP lawmakers initially offered — yet less than the $2.2 trillion in new spending included in Biden’s initial American Jobs Plan.
The new bipartisan compromise focuses largely on core infrastructure — such as improvements to roads, bridges, pipes, and Internet connections — and appears to leave out some of the other spending Biden has endorsed targeting schools and low-income families. And it includes no new tax increases, jettisoning the president’s recommendation to raise rates on corporates to finance new public-works projects.
Seeking to build support for the still-forming package, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) stressed on Tuesday that “every one of the categories we have are categories President Biden put forward in his plan.”
“Now we don’t take on all the categories President Biden laid out,” he added, “but I think we’ve gotten great response so far.”
Even before its official unveiling, however, some Democrats in Congress had raised alarms with its size and scope, fearing it did not go far enough. The party’s more progressive-leaning lawmakers coupled their criticisms with a fresh demand, saying that they would not support any deal unless there is an agreement in the Senate to advance another bill that includes the more robust spending their favor potentially through reconciliation.
“We’re not going to vote on something smaller unless there’s something that has everything in it,” Jayapal said.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Democratic Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to lay down a political marker of their own, stressing any eventual compromise must include robust provisions to address climate change.
“It’s time for us to put on that classic song by Fleetwood Mac it’s time for us to go our own way,” Markey said Tuesday. “This is as clear as day. No climate, no deal. ”
Others rose anew in defense of Biden’s initial proposal, including his plan to invest billions of dollars in new electric vehicle charging stations. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) emerged from House Democrats’ meeting with top White House officials on Tuesday stressing she would not vote for a package that omitted the funding.
Reflecting on the talks, she praised the president for trying to “bring people together and pass an infrastructure bill.”
“But at some point,” Dingell said, “you gotta fish or cut bait.”
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White House signals bipartisan strategy on infrastructure could shift later this month - The Washington Post
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