Senate lawmakers are in talks to try to produce a bipartisan infrastructure bill, including a proposal to split the measure into two parts.
But heavy skepticism, as well as big partisan differences in how much to spend, stands in the way of an agreement.
In a sign that the two parties remain entirely at odds over the legislation, not a single Democrat appeared at a press conference on infrastructure Republicans held on Thursday, despite behind-the-scenes talks between a group of lawmakers in both parties.
Republicans held the press conference to complain about the size and scope of President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which GOP senators criticized for dedicating only a fraction of spending to fixing the nation’s deteriorating roads, bridges, and waterways.
“Americans want safe roads,” Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said. “They don’t want traffic jams. That’s why roads and bridges are what people think about when they talk about infrastructure. But that’s not what the president is talking about.”
Biden’s proposal includes climate change initiatives, provisions to strengthen labor unions, and money to create “home and community-based care,” with higher wages for caregiving workers.
The measure spends $174 billion to promote the expansion of electric vehicles and billions more to retrofit buildings to a greener standard.
“The $2 trillion package that the Biden administration is pushing is really a liberal wish list,” Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, said. “It is grouping things together for Big Labor and providing them with big perks, as well as elements of the Green New Deal.”
A small group of bipartisan lawmakers is discussing a plan to break up the measure to allow a vote on legislation that addresses only traditional infrastructure projects.
Such a measure stands a much better chance of winning bipartisan support, senators believe.
Democrats could then take up the other provisions in a second bill and pass it using a budgetary tactic that would allow it to pass with only 51 votes and no GOP support.
Sens. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and a top Biden adviser, and Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, are floating an infrastructure package with a price tag ranging from $600 billion to $800 billion.
“It’s a strong approach that strikes me as a reasonable path forward that allows us to accomplish both a strong bipartisan infrastructure package and the rest of the total agenda that President Biden has laid out,” Coons said Thursday.
A narrow infrastructure measure would likely attract GOP support, but lawmakers in both parties are wary of breaking up the measure.
Sen. John Thune, the minority whip and No. 2 Republican in the Senate, called a two-part bill “a cynical ploy” to lure the GOP to vote for an infrastructure bill while circumventing Republicans by passing all the unrelated provisions using a budgetary tactic that prevents a filibuster.
“I don’t think our guys are going to take the bait on that,” Thune said.
Democrats are also skeptical of a two-bill approach.
They want to ensure all of Biden’s proposal makes it into law soon, and splitting up the bill risks pushing the green energy and other provisions to the sidelines.
“I don’t know how much time we have for that,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat and a leading negotiator on the infrastructure legislation, said when asked about splitting up the legislation.
Democrats are also less inclined to vote for a more narrow, less expensive measure.
“I guarantee you that this isn’t an option to go small,” Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said. “We need to go big.”
House lawmakers are currently drafting infrastructure legislation and hope to pass a bill and send it to the Senate by this summer. Democrats want to get something to Biden’s desk long before the start of the 2022 election cycle, when Democrats in both chambers will be fighting to defend slim majorities.
Biden proposes paying for part of the proposal with a corporate tax hike, which Republicans oppose nearly universally.
Biden’s plan would raise corporate rates from 21% to 28%, which is too high even for Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, who in 2012 campaigned in support of a 25% corporate tax rate.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said 28% is too high, and he supports a 25% rate for corporations.
Manchin is part of the bipartisan group plotting an infrastructure-focused proposal. He’s not wedded to the $800 billion figure floated by Capito.
“If it takes $4 trillion, I’d do $4 trillion, but we have to pay for it,” Manchin said. “What we have to do is identify infrastructure.”
On Friday, Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who is among those in talks to construct a bipartisan bill, told the Washington Post in an online video chat that the public supports passing an infrastructure measure and that it will help push the two parties to an agreement.
“Infrastructure is popular, as something we need to do,” Blunt said.
