Biden Reaches Infrastructure Deal With Bipartisan Group of Senators

WASHINGTON (CN) — Although well short of the more than $2 trillion in infrastructure spending included in President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan, a group of senators and the president on Thursday hammered out the terms of a bipartisan package.

The five Democratic and five Republican senators have been negotiating a deal amongst themselves and alongside the White House for weeks. Multiple senators, including Maine Republican Susan Collins, told reporters Wednesday night an agreement had finally been struck.

After meeting with the bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House on Thursday, Biden told reporters “we have a deal” on the details of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. The president said there were concessions on both sides: for him, a compromise on the total amount of funding in the package, and for GOP senators, agreeing to more funds for essential projects than they were initially inclined to.

“But they did not, and I understand their position, Republicans and this group did not want to go along with any of my [American Families] Plan issues, the child tax credit, the human infrastructure that I talk about and that, we’ll see what happens in the reconciliation bill and the budget process,” Biden said, referring to another proposal he introduced alongside his American Jobs Plan.

The deal announced Thursday has a total cost of $1.2 trillion over eight years. New spending amounts to $579 billion, with $312 billion of that funding going toward transportation improvements like fixing roads, bridges and railways and bolstering public transportation.

Another $266 billion will be dedicated to projects like improving broadband and water infrastructure, and $47 billion goes to “resilience programs,” which Louisiana Republican Senator Bob Cassidy said Thursday includes stemming coastal erosion for states slowly slipping into the ocean.

Electric vehicle infrastructure would get $15 billion if the plan is approved by Congress. A $25 billion investment would be made in airports while $16 billion would go toward upgrading ports and waterways. Environmental remediation is another component of the package, with $21 billion set aside to address growing challenges presented by the changing climate.

The senators behind the deal aim to pay for plan in a myriad of ways: ramping up IRS enforcement to bring in more tax revenue, repurposing existing relief funds from 2020 legislation passed to address the Covid-19 pandemic, and redirecting unused unemployment insurance money. The group also proposes allowing states to sell or purchase unused toll credits for infrastructure, selling some of the strategic reserve of petroleum and reinstating superfund fees for chemicals.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, called the package “historic,” noting the funds would be used for roads and bridges “but also lots of other kinds of infrastructure,” like boosting access to broadband internet and replacing water pipes inundated with toxins like lead and PFAS, also known as forever chemicals.  

All of these investments would improve productivity and drive economic growth without introducing new taxes, Portman said.

Collins called the bill “the largest infrastructure package in history,” and stressed the importance of the White House meeting Thursday.

“We’ve agreed on the price tag, the scope and how to pay for it,” Collins said. “It was not easy to get agreement on all three, but it was essential. It was essential to show the American people that the Senate can function, that we can work in a bipartisan way and it sends an important message to the world as well.”

It’s still unclear whether House lawmakers will entertain the Senate’s bipartisan package if it passes in the upper chamber. During her weekly press conference on Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi indicated the House would only take up the deal if there was a vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget reconciliation bill in the Senate first.

At an individual press conference after speaking outside the White House with senators, Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, told reporters it was imperative that both the infrastructure package and a budget reconciliation bill encapsulating his other initiatives receive votes “in tandem.”

When asked if he supported Pelosi’s comments on holding the infrastructure package for a vote until a reconciliation bill had also been drafted, the president responded simply, “yes.”

“I expect that in the coming months this summer, before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this bill, the infrastructure bill, as well as voted on the budget resolution,” Biden said. “But if this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.”

Biden told reporters the deal meant millions of good paying jobs for Americans and safer, healthier communities. The funding is expected to be used to replace all the lead water pipes in the U.S. and will provide for two-thirds of the resources Biden initially sought in other investments.

“What we agreed today was what we could agree on -- the physical infrastructure,” Biden said. “There was no agreement on the rest, we’re going to have to do that through the budget process and we need a fair tax system to pay for it all. I’m not going to rest until both get to my desk.”

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