The largest U.S. business and labor organizations are joining forces with more than 20 other interest groups to press lawmakers to enact the $579 billion infrastructure deal brokered by bipartisan senators with President Joe Biden last month.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO, together with groups representing manufacturers, retailers and builders, announced on Thursday the formation of a coalition that will advocate for passage of the infrastructure package.
“Now is the time to turn these promises into projects,” the Coalition for Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment said in a statement. “We urge Congress to turn this framework into legislation that will be signed into law.”
The alignment of business and labor organizations that are more known for being at odds with each other underscores the urgency surrounding the infrastructure package. The proposal is the one piece of Biden’s broader economic agenda that has drawn some bipartisan support, with Republicans opposed to a separate tax and social-spending package championed by Democrats.
Biden’s infrastructure accord with a group of Republican and Democratic senators won a crucial endorsement on Tuesday from a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, the 58-member House Problem Solvers Caucus. That group bucked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s push to link her chamber’s approval of the infrastructure deal to Senate passage of a later, larger tax and social spending budget bill.
Other notable organizations on the coalition backing the infrastructure compromise include the Business Roundtable, National Retail Federation, and National Association of Manufacturers.
