A new bipartisan group of lawmakers is crafting a backup infrastructure proposal that has drawn the interest of the top Senate Democrat now that White House talks with GOP negotiators appear to be faltering.
Sens. Mitt Romney, Rob Portman, Kyrsten Sinema, and Joe Manchin are preparing a package worth roughly $880 billion with a mechanism to pay for the legislation.
Romney, a Utah Republican, described the group as “waiting in the wings” in case talks between President Joe Biden and Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, do not produce a deal.
The small group plans to come up with a package to sell to a larger bipartisan gang of lawmakers who have been meeting for weeks in an effort to strike a bipartisan deal.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, appeared interested in the bipartisan gang’s back-up proposal, telling reporters that the plan “might be closer to what the president needs.”
Schumer said Capito’s talks with Biden “appear to be running into a brick wall,” following several days of discussion about how to bridge a gap between Biden’s $1.7 proposal and the GOP’s latest offer to add an additional $50 billion to its $928 billion package.
Capito told reporters Tuesday that Republicans offered Biden the roughly $1 trillion package he said he would accept.
“But now, it’s apparently not enough,” Capito said.
The new bipartisan gang’s $880 billion package is even lower than Capito’s latest offer but is not final, say participants.
Schumer told reporters the Senate would “pursue two paths” on infrastructure that could include a bipartisan bill on more traditional infrastructure proposals and a second piece of legislation that would include the noninfrastructure extras that the GOP opposes, such as $400 billion for caregivers, funding for universal preschool, and free community college.
Schumer said Democrats would seek to pass part of the package through reconciliation, which is a budgetary tactic that allows certain bills to circumvent the 60-vote threshold.
“We’re not going to sacrifice the bigness and boldness in this bill,” Schumer told reporters. “We will just pursue two paths, and at some point, they will join.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki denied the Capito-Biden talks had failed. The two will speak later Tuesday, she said.
Psaki said Biden will also speak to “other senators who have been engaged in a discussion on bipartisan infrastructure plans,” referring to the new bipartisan talks led by Romney, Portman, and Sinema.
