Biden will meet with infrastructure negotiators as bipartisan group moves closer to a deal
Twenty-one senators — 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats — have backed the infrastructure framework. They will likely need to win support from Democratic leaders to garner the 60 votes needed to pass the bill in the Democratic-held Senate.
Biden plans to meet with senators who crafted the plan at 11:45 a.m. ET.
“We’ll see what the president says, but I will tell you we’ve worked very closely with White House negotiators through this process,” Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and one of the lead infrastructure negotiators, told CNBC on Thursday morning. He said the group will pitch the plan to more senators from both parties.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who has worked on infrastructure as co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, told CNBC that a deal is “inches away.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., met with White House officials on Wednesday night. While they have signaled they will support the bipartisan framework, they aim to pass it in concert with a larger bill that addresses more of their priorities without Republican votes. The second package could include programs related to child and elder care, education, health care and climate change.
The Senate has started to work on the budget resolution that would allow Democrats to use the reconciliation process to pass the plan. Democrats will have to try to convince skeptical progressives to support the more narrow bipartisan infrastructure deal, and centrists to back a sprawling plan to expand social programs and fight climate change.
“We won’t get enough votes to pass either unless we have enough votes to pass both,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. “When the Senate returns in July, it will be time to take the next step and hold the first votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor of the Senate. Senators should also be prepared to consider a budget resolution that will clear the way for the budget reconciliation bill as soon as possible.”
Pelosi said that the House would not take up either piece of legislation until both get through the Senate, where Democrats face a more challenging path than in the House. The party cannot lose a single vote on a reconciliation bill in the evenly split chamber.
“There ain’t going to be an infrastructure bill unless we have a reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate,” she said during a press briefing Thursday morning. “House and Senate Democrats are united in that we — in the House — are not bringing [it] to the floor unless both bills pass in the Senate.”
Both of the congressional leaders agreed with Biden’s call not to raise taxes on anyone who makes under $400,000 per year, according to a White House readout of the meeting. The Biden administration has said it will not back an increase to the gas tax or an electric vehicle user fee as part of the bipartisan framework because it would break the president’s pledge.
Republicans have fought the president’s proposal to hike the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. The GOP slashed the rate from 35% in 2017.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
— CNBC’s Thomas Franck contributed to this report.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/24/infrastructure-deal-talks-biden-invites-bipartisan-senators-to-white-house.html