U.S. President Joe Biden departs after speaking in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Negotiations between the White House and a small group of Republican senators over a bipartisan infrastructure bill collapsed on Tuesday, weighed down by deep disagreements over what constitutes infrastructure and how much money should be allocated for it.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, W.Va., the lead Republican negotiator, said President Joe Biden had spoken to her by phone Tuesday and ended the negotiations.
“I spoke with the president this afternoon, and he ended our infrastructure negotiations,” Moore Capito said in a statement.
“Throughout our negotiations, we engaged respectfully, fully, and very candidly—delivering several serious counteroffers that each represented the largest infrastructure investment Republicans have put forth,” she said.
With no grand bargain in sight, Biden reached out to at least one Republican member of a bipartisan group of senators who have been quietly working on a backup infrastructure plan.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., tweeted that Biden called him on Tuesday and “brought up flood resiliency and energy provisions” that would boost his state.
“Strongly support [Capito’s] efforts. Any infrastructure package should and must be bipartisan,” he wrote.
Other senators working on the alternative plan include Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V.
They aim to win over as many as 20 centrist senators to back their plan once it is finalized.
The lawmakers crafting the proposal planned to meet on Tuesday afternoon.
While it is unclear what a final plan would contain, it could cost just under $900 billion, according to reports. The price tag would be roughly half of Biden’s last $1.7 trillion offer to the GOP.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that the bipartisan group of senators “are trying to put something together that might be closer to what the president needs” than Capito’s offer.
While Capito last sent Biden an offer approaching $1 trillion, only a fraction of it was actual new spending, and the rest was money repurposed from other federal agencies.
But congressional leaders have not yet put their weight behind the larger group of senators’ talks.
The most centrist Democrat in the Senate, Manchin will play an outsized role in any eventual bill that is passed by the chamber, where Democrats only hold a one seat majority.
So far, Manchin has insisted that any infrastructure bill be bipartisan. His stance could force his party to embrace a smaller, bipartisan infrastructure package this summer, and wait until later in the year to tackle other priorities like care for dependents and clean energy projects in separate, unrelated bills.
Biden is also in touch with Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, the Democratic chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
On Wednesday, DeFazio’s committee will mark up a massive reauthorization bill to fund surface transportation and highways for the next five years. Considered a “must-pass” spending bill, the highway bill could be altered to include several planks of Biden’s signature infrastructure plan.
This is a developing story. please check back for updates.
