WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday issued President Joe Biden an offer of a $928 billion infrastructure plan in the slow-moving negotiations over a bipartisan plan to repair the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband internet.
The latest proposal comes days ahead of the White House’s self-imposed soft deadline of Memorial Day to have progress on an agreement and Biden’s first major bipartisan legislative accomplishment.
Senate Republicans are framing their proposal as in line with what Biden personally told them he found acceptable during a recent White House meeting, which was a $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion deal, down significantly from the White House’s latest counterproposal of $1.7 trillion.
“We believe that this counteroffer delivers on what President Biden told us in the Oval Office that day and that is to try to reach somewhere near $1 trillion over an eight year period of time,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who is leading negotiations for Senate Republicans. “We have achieved that goal in this counteroffer.”
In anticipation of the offer being released Thursday , Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., called it “a number that President Biden has said was acceptable.”
Democrats are likely to balk at the proposal’s significant reliance on repurposing money already approved by Congress in earlier COVID-19 economic stimulus measures. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., said there is about $700 billion in COVID-19 funding that has not been spent and cannot be spent.
“We believe repurposing these funds needs to be a really important part of how we fill this gap,” he said.
The administration has yet to formally respond to the GOP’s latest plan.
