The House will vote on an infrastructure bill this week authored by Democrats that is unlikely to attract significant GOP support.
Democrats will bring up the $547 billion Invest in America Act before leaving town for a two-week recess.
The bill, which would authorize more than $200 billion for mass transit and other initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, will hit the House floor as the two parties struggle to keep a separate infrastructure deal authored in the Senate intact.
Only two Republicans voted in favor of the measure when the House Transportation Committee advanced the bill earlier this month, and most GOP lawmakers are likely to reject the bill this week.
“This is the majority’s first attempt at passing such a bill in this Congress,” said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who is the top Republican on the House Rules Committee. “Unfortunately, this first attempt is a partisan bill and is quite lacking.”
Republicans say the measure would dedicate far too much funding to provisions aimed at addressing climate change. For example, the bill would significantly increase funding for financially struggling Amtrak. And it would require states to fix existing roads and highways before expanding them with additional roads to address congestion.
The bill would authorize $8 billion to expand charging stations for electric vehicles and increase the nation’s fleet of electric buses.
The National Resources Defense Council praised the measure as “an essential down payment on President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, wedding climate action to equitable recovery at a time when the country needs both.”
Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, said the bill “lays the groundwork” for Biden’s larger infrastructure package.
The Democrat-led House is expected to pass the measure as Congress struggles to agree on a bipartisan infrastructure bill that would cost roughly $1 trillion.
Biden announced Friday he reached an accord with a small group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on an infrastructure package that sticks to funding roads, bridges, waterways, and broadband.
The bill bears little resemblance to the House measure, lacking the climate initiatives and highway spending dictates sought by both Biden and Democrats aiming to reduce fossil fuels and expand mass transit and bike lanes.
Democrats are balking at the narrow accord, threatening to block it if it is not accompanied by a much broader and more costly package that incorporates climate change provisions and massive spending on social programs such as free community college, caregiver funding, and universal preschool.
Biden issued a statement on Sunday that attempted to reassure Republicans he supports the bipartisan deal after he suggested on Friday that he, too, would block the bill if it is not accompanied by a larger spending package.
Biden on Tuesday will travel to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to tout the bipartisan deal.
Democrats on Monday acknowledged the talks but are ready to lay down a marker on their own infrastructure spending package beginning this week.
“As drafting continues on a larger bipartisan infrastructure deal, this bill is essentially a downpayment on fixing our crumbling roads, bridges, and highways,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, on Monday.
