White House negotiators presented Republican senators on Friday with a watered-down version of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan that would cost $1.7 trillion instead of the original $2.3 trillion, as the two sides seek to lock in a compromise on the massive spending bill.
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters the counteroffer from the Biden team cuts out some proposed funding for infrastructure-related research and development efforts, manufacturing and small businesses and shifts that over to other spending measures under consideration by Congress.
The updated blueprint also lowers the proposed pots of cash for expanding broadband access and repairing roads, bridges and other physical infrastructure to more closely align with price tags floated by a group of moderate Republicans led by West Virginia Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, Psaki said.
“In our view, this is the art of seeking common ground,” Psaki said.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Biden’s chief negotiators in the infrastructure talks, unveiled the counteroffer during a meeting with the Republicans on Friday afternoon, according to the White House.
The Republicans did not immediately respond to the adjusted infrastructure proposal.
The GOP senators disappointed the White House last month by presenting a far more limited infrastructure measure worth about $560 billion. According to reports, Capito and the other Republicans have not budged much on that blueprint over the course of talks with Buttigieg, Raimondo and other Biden advisers.
Biden could urge Democrats to pass his infrastructure plan without any Republican support through a complicated budgetary process known as reconciliation.
But Biden, who spent nearly 40 years in the Senate priding himself on his ability to reach bipartisan consensus, has said repeatedly that he hopes to get at least some GOP backing for the infrastructure bill, especially after his $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package passed Congress without a single Republican vote earlier this year.
As originally envisioned, Biden’s infrastructure plan would pump hundreds of billions of dollars into fixing the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges, public transit, water and power grids, broadband communications and a slew of other infrastructure systems, creating millions of blue-collar jobs and making the U.S. less reliant on fossil fuels in the process.
The proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan, proposes paying for the sweeping investments through a series of tax increases on corporations. Republicans are especially irked by the tax increase provision of the plan, claiming it would hurt the U.S. economy.
Biden has pushed back against that idea and argued it’s high time for corporations and the rich to pay their “fair share” after former President Donald Trump slashed their taxes.
The president has said he hopes to reach an infrastructure deal by Memorial Day, which is rapidly approaching.
