Do Washington Policymakers Have An Infrastructure Deal Or Not?

On the evening of June 23, a group of five Republican and five Democratic senators announced that they had reached a deal with White House staff on an infrastructure investment package. The group briefed President Joe Biden on the outline the next day and, after the meeting, President Biden said he had agreed to the deal.

Within hours of that statement, however, there were signs that the compact already was crumbling.

Before briefing the president, the 10 senators met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). While Speaker Pelosi said after that meeting that she is “very excited about the prospect of a bipartisan agreement,” after President Biden’s statement Thursday the speaker also said she is unlikely to bring a physical infrastructure-only package to the House floor unless Senate Democrats also advance legislation outlining trillions in new spending for other “family infrastructure” priorities like childcare and education. Within hours, President Biden issued a similar statement.

As a result, at least two Republican lawmakers who had been part of the group of 21 senators who already had agreed to support the plan —  Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — warned that they could drop their support if Democrats insist that a larger Democratic-only spending plan must go with it.

President Biden clarified his remarks on Saturday. According to The Hill, he said, “At a press conference after announcing the bipartisan agreement, I indicated that I would refuse to sign the infrastructure bill if it was sent to me without my Families Plan and other priorities, including clean energy … That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked … My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.”

The U.S. Senate is out of session this week. Next steps are so far unclear, but Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Schumer did indicate to reporters that they plan to get the infrastructure bill and a budget resolution through Congress in July.

While full details are not yet available, the bipartisan package that President Biden agreed to reportedly will include $1.2 trillion in total spending over eight years, including $559 billion in new spending. According to news reports, that spending breaks down roughly as follows:

• $109 billion for roads, highways, and so-called “other” projects;
• $73 billion to upgrade power infrastructure, including building “thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines”;
• $65 billion to build broadband infrastructure in areas of the country that do not yet have it;
• $49 billion for transit infrastructure;
• $47 billion for projects to improve climate resiliency;
• $7.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure (charging stations, etc.); and more.

The spending package will be paid for by:

• Implementation or expansion of several user fees;
• Redistributing unspent federal funds from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law; and
• Improving tax enforcement on businesses, families, and individuals to raise $100 billion in revenue.

Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots as Congress works its way through the legislative process to approve this bipartisan outline.

Also last week: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and a key swing vote on infrastructure legislation, has released a 400-page energy infrastructure proposal. The draft bill aims to:

• Enhance nuclear energy, hydrogen energy, and carbon capture, which uses technology to capture emissions from activities such as burning fossil fuels;
• Increase the resilience of the electric grid from threats related to both natural disasters and cybersecurity; and
• Improve energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings, the manufacturing industry, and schools.

Read the legislation here.