White House, Congressional Leaders Meet On Infrastructure Bill
For the first time since taking office, President Joe Biden met with the four top congressional leaders – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – in the Oval Office. The topic was infrastructure.
As a reminder, the current state of play on this issue is this: to accomplish any sort of bipartisan compromise, President Biden likely will have to split his $2.2 trillion American Jobs Plan into two or more bills since Republicans have universally rejected the size of the overall spending proposal. In fact, Republicans want a package that is about one-third the size of the American Jobs Plan. (Sen. McConnell recently suggested Republicans would consider something between $600 billion and $800 billion, higher than GOP senators’ $568 billion plan that was unveiled in April.)
While there was there was no breakthrough during the Oval Office meeting, Sen. McConnell and Rep. McCarthy said the discussion was productive. President Biden said, “I’m encouraged that there’s room to have a compromise on a bipartisan bill that’s solid and significant and a means by which to pay for it without dropping all of the burden on middle-class and working-class people.”
President Biden also met last week with a bipartisan group of senators. After that meeting, Senate Republicans promised to provide a revised infrastructure offer this week. While the GOP might offer to increase their spending level, that proposal is likely to remain focused on core infrastructure, including roads, bridges, water and broadband. The spending portion of the package is not the only matter dividing lawmakers, of course. There also is still deep disagreement about how to pay for infrastructure investments. Indeed,
following the White House meeting, Rep. McCarthy said, “Raising taxes would be the biggest mistake you could make” while President Biden said there is “room for compromise” as long as the burden of paying for infrastructure is shared “across the spectrum.”
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), meanwhile, said he thinks it would be a “big mistake” to pay for an infrastructure package through a gas tax increase instead of through raising taxes on corporations. The Finance Committee is the main tax-writing committee in the Senate and will be in charge of writing the revenue language for any infrastructure bill. Republicans on that panel tend to favor user fees, like the gas tax, to pay for infrastructure spending.
As readers are aware, Democrats have proposed a series of corporate tax increases to move alongside an infrastructure bill. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, those proposed changes would lower U.S. gross domestic product by $107 billion in 2023 and by $169 billion in 2026. Ordinary capital, or investments in equipment and structures, would be $70 billion less in 2023 and $70 billion and $51 billion less in 2026 and 2031, respectively. Read more here.
Want to weigh in on infrastructure and tax policy? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made it easy for businesses to make their voices heard on this issue. Click here to use the U.S. Chamber’s advocacy tool to tell members of Congress to enact comprehensive, bipartisan infrastructure legislation before the Fourth of July.
The NAM also has created a site where individuals can weigh in with members of Congress regarding tax policy and infrastructure. Use this portal to send a letter.