WASHINGTON — Top White House aides are meeting with a group of senators trying come up with an infrastructure compromise, as the effort moves closer to an agreement despite continuing differences on how to pay for a proposed $579 billion in new spending for roads, bridges and other projects.
Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council; Steve Ricchetti, counselor to President Joe Biden; and Louisa Terrell, the White House legislative affairs director, were at the Capitol for discussions with the 10-member Senate group led by GOP Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The emissaries add urgency to the talks, which have been stuck, in part, on White House opposition to indexing the gasoline tax to inflation. A person familiar with the White House’s plans said Tuesday’s negotiations, should they go well, could spur an invitation from Biden to meet at the White House.
Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, a member of a wider bipartisan group of 21 senators supporting the effort, said Biden has an opportunity to help nudge the nascent agreement forward.
“He needs to lean into this package, this bipartisan framework that we’ve got,” Young said Tuesday on MSNBC. “He needs to bless it, and he needs to encourage fellow Democrats to support it. So, if he does that, I believe it’s going to pass in both the House and Senate, the American people will have their infrastructure without an increase in taxes.”
Portman said the senators plan to draw up a “fleshed out” framework for a proposal this week. After an initial session between senators and White House officials Tuesday, Portman told reporters there is still work to do and both sides would continue talks into the afternoon.
One of the sticking points continues to be coming up with a way to pay for their $579 billion plan. Two of the negotiators, Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said the idea of indexing the motor fuels tax to inflation is all but dead.
The administration has been pushing Biden’s plan to bolster funding for Internal Revenue Service enforcement to collect from tax cheats. The group has proposed limited new revenue from bolstering IRS enforcement but far short of the amount the White House estimates could be recouped in unpaid taxes. Portman said they also are looking at raising revenue from airwaves sales and fees from major polluters.
There are disagreements about how much stricter tax collections would bring in. The U.S. Treasury Department estimated that wealthy taxpayers as a group are hiding billions of dollars of income. The administration estimates that giving the IRS $80 billion more in funding would raise $700 billion in additional revenue over a decade. But not all experts agree with that estimate and Republicans are balking at giving the agency $80 billion over 10 years.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that giving the IRS $40 billion -- as the bipartisan Senate group has proposed -- would yield $103 billion in revenue for a net $63 billion.
“There’s lots of conversation on the tax gap issue,” said Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, a member of the bipartisan group. Tester said he thought a deal could come together among the group by Tuesday afternoon.
Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and another member, said: “There are a number of pay-fors that we’ve been able to add to the list and I think we’re going to get there.”
Biden on Monday met separately at the White House with two Democratic moderates, Sinema and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, according to a White House official.
Biden and Manchin, the official said, discussed voting rights and how to advance a bill in the evenly divided Senate. They also talked about infrastructure. The meeting with Sinema also concerned infrastructure, the official added.
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(With assistance by Steven T. Dennis, Laura Davison and Jenny Leonard.)
