Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll bring up an infrastructure package for a vote in July, putting a firm deadline on slow-moving negotiations for a bipartisan bill to fix the nation’s roads, bridges, and waterways.
Schumer’s announcement came hours after Republicans said they plan to counter the Biden administration’s $1.7 trillion infrastructure proposal offered to the GOP last week.
Schumer suggested he’ll move a bill without the GOP if necessary.
“That is our plan, to move forward in July,” the New York Democrat told reporters Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with party lawmakers.
Republicans have been working with the Biden administration on a compromise infrastructure deal that could be used as the basis for legislation. They are on the verge of sending a new offer to the White House to counter a proposal they rejected last Friday.
Biden administration officials lowered the cost and reduced the size of his initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal to one that would cost $1.7 trillion.
But Republicans said the package is still far too costly with a scope that is too wide, noting it includes significant spending unrelated to infrastructure. For example, the bill allocates $400 billion for eldercare while it trims funding for traditional infrastructure projects.
Republicans also reject the plan to increase corporate taxes to pay for the package.
“The Democrats are trying to redefine infrastructure to include lots of things,” said Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican. “A long list of social spending on their wish list.”
The GOP accused the White House staff of undercutting Biden’s effort to strike a bipartisan deal by offering a plan much larger than what the president privately told Republican lawmakers he’d accept.
“Friday clearly was a setback,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, on Tuesday. “My impression is that the staff at the White House isn’t as inclined to make a deal, perhaps as the president is.”
Republicans are not giving up and are instead preparing “a very good offer” that they say comes close to what Biden told them he would accept.
Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and a chief GOP infrastructure negotiator, said the approximately $1 trillion offer would not require a tax increase and would be partly financed with re-directed, unspent federal money meant for COVID-19 relief.
Wicker said the GOP proposal, which they’ll present to Biden on Thursday, would not require significant user fees, such as a mileage or gas tax.
According to Wicker, Biden told Republicans he would accept something close to the $1 trillion figure. However, White House staff who have met with Republicans did not agree to a price tag below the $1.7 trillion offered last week.
“We’re going to hit a figure very close to what the president said he would accept, and it will end up being the most substantial infrastructure bill ever enacted by the federal government,” Wicker told reporters. “And if the president gets to make the decision, he will.”
