President Joe Biden will not demand an infrastructure deal or bipartisan outline with Republicans by the time he leaves for a European trip next week, and he might even be negotiating via phone on the sidelines of those meetings.
Biden has said he wants June to be a month of “action” on Capitol Hill, including by sending him a massive infrastructure bill. Top aides, however, have said even if talks led by West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito fail to produce a deal, the president is aware other Republicans are interested in negotiating.
But seeing the Capito talks through to their end will likely take a few more days, or longer. Then, new talks would begin, almost from scratch, with the two sides still miles apart on what falls under the infrastructure umbrella and how to pay for it.
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With some liberal Democrats growing impatient over Biden’s weeks-old talks with Republicans, there is pressure on the White House to call an end to negotiations and go it alone with only Democratic votes. They could do that by passing one or both of Biden’s nearly $2 trillion plans via a fast-track rule that allows some legislation to clear the Senate with just 51 votes.
But the president is eager to move toward a deal with Capito as he prepares to land in the United Kingdom next week for meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, G-7 leaders, and then Queen Elizabeth II. Top aides have stopped short of saying the start of the trip is a deadline at which point Biden would go it alone on infrastructure.
Press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday told the Washington Examiner that her boss does not view the moment he steps on board Air Force One for his first foreign trip as a deadline for talks with Republicans.
“We’ll still work on domestic issues when we’re overseas,” she said during a brief interview on the executive compound’s North Lawn driveway.
Asked if it is possible aides could be handing him mobile phones in between meetings with G-7 and NATO leaders, Psaki opted not to rule out that scenario.
“We’ll see,” she said. “Stay tuned.”
Biden and Capito were set to speak again on Friday, this time by telephone, after a face-to-face Oval Office meeting two days prior failed to produce even the outlines of an agreement.
The president in that meeting did offer as a pay-for a 15% baseline corporate tax rate, at which Republicans balked.
But both sides issued only tepid statements that did not indicate any tangible signs that a deal is any more likely than it was weeks ago.
Following the Friday conversation, a Capito spokesperson said the two sides have agreed to speak again on Monday.
If those talks eventually fizzle, another option could be the White House opening talks with a bipartisan group led by GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana.
Psaki, during her daily briefing on Friday, said the White House is open to a “range of options” to get a bipartisan deal.
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Still, the two sides remain far apart. The last GOP proposal was narrowly focused on roads, bridges, tunnels, and other physical things, with a $925 billion price tag. Biden’s last offer included other provisions, such as federal childcare help, at a cost of $1.7 trillion.
