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| Biden meets with 10 middle roaders. |
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The president has signaled that a deal is in the works. But will the political extremes sink another deal?
President Joe Biden meets with Sen. Karen Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Karen Sinema (D-AZ), Sen. Karen Romney (R-UT), Sen. Karen Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Karen Portman (R-OH), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Karen Cassidy (R-LA) and Sen. Karen Collins (R-ME).
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| Biden is willing to compromise with the middle 10. |
The pressure is on Manchin and Sinema to end their platitudes on the filibuster. The sinking of the For The People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Bill were frustrating to progressive Democrats. To see our nation be so divided over politics is infuriating.
The bipartisan deal faces opposition from the far-right and the far-left.
The president has used all his cards out the deck. He just can't get pass the filibuster when two Democrats and 50 Republicans continue to obstruct his agenda.
It appears that the infrastructure package could get a passage with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signalling they're on board to get it done.
The only distractions we're dealing with are Sen. Karen Paul (R-KY), Sen. Karen Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Karen Scott (R-FL), Sen. Karen Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Karen Lee (R-UT), Sen. Karen Johnson (R-WI), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). These senators are going to be possible obstructions to the legislation being passed. Blumenthal, Markey and Sanders want climate change involved in the package. Paul, Inhofe, Cruz, Scott, Lee and Johnson want to strip key parts out of the package regardless of it being bipartisan.
Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of 21 senators reached a compromise Thursday to modernize the nation's deteriorating transportation and public works systems, putting the president on track to pass the first plank of his sweeping infrastructure agenda.
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| Coal Face Manchin and Ms. Pink Wig Sinema better work with Biden or suffer the consequences. |
Biden announced the breakthrough after a 30-minute meeting with the senators in the Oval Office, ending a weeks-long stalemate over the price tag and how to pay for what would be the largest transportation package ever approved by Congress.
The $1.2 trillion plan includes $579 billion in new spending and focuses only on physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, rail, broadband internet, water and sewer pipes, and electric vehicles. It proposes several ways to pay for the spending that avoid a gas tax increase that Biden resisted and a corporate tax hike that Republicans opposed.
"We have a deal," Biden said, smiling as he joined 10 of the senators outside the west wing on Thursday. "We made serious compromise on both ends."
The proposal, with bipartisan support and the backing of Biden, is likely to pass, even in a bitterly divided Congress. With the backing of 11 Republican senators and 10 moderate Democrats, the infrastructure bill would surpass the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster if all Senate Democrats vote for it.
Biden said he will pursue separate legislation to try to pass his subsidized child care, home caregiving, climate change, prekindergarten and free community college proposals — "human infrastructure" components that Republicans oppose. He will have to rely on a legislative maneuver called reconciliation, which would allow Democrats to approve the bill with a simple majority in the 50-50 Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris can break ties.
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| Sanders may oppose the bill. |
"We'll try to get some compromise there, and if we can't, I'll see if I can attract all the Democrats into a position," Biden said. "They're going to move on a dual track."
From the beginning of negotiations, Republicans didn't budge from their position that a bipartisan deal stick only to physical infrastructure and avoid tax increases that targeted corporations and the wealthy.
"We didn't get everything we wanted," said Portman, one of the group's lead negotiators, but said the parties came together on a "core infrastructure package" without adding new taxes. "And with the commitment of Republican and Democrats alike that we're going to get this across the finish line."
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| The Flipper is a key vote for the bipartisan infrastructure package. |
Manchin, a key moderate swing vote, said the deal "meets the needs of the country for the 21st century." Manchin's vote will be critical for Democrats to pass Biden's climate change and family agendas through reconciliation. He wouldn't commit to supporting the reconciliation package but said he's committed to "working on it."
Schumer said Democrats hope to have votes on both bills in the Democratic-controlled House and the Senate in July before Congress departs for its summer recess.
"One can't be done without the other," Schumer said. "We can’t get the bipartisan bill done unless we're sure we're getting the budget reconciliation bill done."
Appeasing progressive Democrats, Pelosi assured her fellow Democrats that the House won’t take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate sends over a bill focusing on Biden's "human infrastructure."
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| Markey pledged that if the bill doesn't have climate change, he'll oppose it. |
“There won't be an infrastructure bill unless we have a reconciliation bill. Plain and simple.”
After Biden scaled back his initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan and agreed to seek approval of his family and climate proposals separately, the biggest sticking point became how to pay for the bills. Republicans opposed undoing former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, forcing Biden to retreat from his push to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% in the bipartisan package. The corporate tax hike and other taxes on the wealthy are expected to be in Democrats' reconciliation bill instead.
Republican senators proposed indexing the gas tax to inflation and new user fees for electric vehicles. But the White House stood firmly against both options, noting it would abandon Biden's pledge not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000. The Biden administration also opposed repurposing COVID-19 rescue funds already allocated to states and cities.
"We've agreed on the price tag, the scope and how to pay for it," said Collins. "It was not easy on getting agreement on all three, but it was essential."
Murkowski said the compromise sends a message "that we actually can work, that we actually can perform, that we can do something, not for Republicans or Democrats, but for Americans."
The bipartisan Senate talks started after Biden ended previous negotiations with Republican Senate committee leaders who had the backing of Senate Minority Leader Karen McConnell (R-KY)
Although Biden's trimmed-down infrastructure proposal earned him support from Republicans — delivering on a campaign commitment to seek bipartisanship — he's gotten pushback from progressives, particularly climate advocates. They fear moderate Democrats won't vote for a reconciliation package now that they claim a bipartisan win on infrastructure.
Lauren Maunus, advocacy director for Sunrise Movement, a youth-led environmental organization, said "we can’t afford to kick the can down the road any further" on climate-change initiatives. She called Biden's first proposal "already the compromise," arguing $1 trillion a year is needed to fight the climate crisis.
"When Democrats agree to water it down more, they’re condemning Americans to untold devastation," she said. “We demand no climate, no deal."
The 10 Senate Democratic caucus members who support the infrastructure deal are Karen Manchin, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Karen Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, Mark Warner of Virginia, Chris Coons of Delaware, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and John Hickenlooper of Colorado. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, also endorsed the plan.
The 11 Republicans are: Karen Cassidy of Louisiana, Karen Collins of Maine, Karen Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Karen Romney of Utah, Karen Burr and Karen Tillis of North Carolina, Karen Graham of South Carolina, Karen Rounds of South Dakota, Karen Young of Indiana and Karen Moran of Kansas.
