President announces bipartisan deal reached
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a hard-earned bipartisan agreement on a pared-down infrastructure plan that would make a start on his top legislative priority and validate his efforts to reach across the political aisle. But he openly acknowledged that Democrats will likely have to tackle much of the rest on their own.
The bill's price tag at $973 billion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, is a scaled-back but still significant piece of Biden's broader proposals.
It includes more than a half-trillion dollars in new spending and could open the door to the president's more sweeping $4 trillion proposals for child care and what the White House calls human infrastructure later on.
“When we can find common ground, working across party lines, that is what I will seek to do,” said Biden, who deemed the deal “a true bipartisan effort, breaking the ice that too often has kept us frozen in place.”
The president stressed that “neither side got everything they wanted in this deal; that's what it means to compromise,” and said that other White House priorities would be taken on separately in a congressional budget process known as reconciliation, which allows for majority passage without the need for Republican votes.
He insisted that the two items would be done “in tandem” and that he would not sign the bipartisan deal without the other, bigger piece. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and progressive members of Congress declared they would hold to the same approach.
Claiming a major victory five months into his presidency, Biden said, “This reminds me of the days when we used to get an awful lot done up in the United States Congress.” Biden, a former Delaware senator.
However, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell complained that Biden was “caving” to Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer's plan to “hold the bipartisan agreement hostage” for the president's bigger package.
“That's not the way to show you're serious about getting a bipartisan outcome,” McConnell said.
And there is plenty of skepticism on Biden's own left flank. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said the bipartisan agreement is “way too small —paltry, pathetic. I need a clear, ironclad assurance that there will be a really adequate robust package” that will follow.
Thursday's deal was struck by the bipartisan group led by Republican Portman of Ohio and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, including some of the more independent lawmakers in the Senate, some known for bucking their parties.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said, “It sends an important message to the world as well that America can function, can get things done.”
The proposal includes both new and existing spending on long-running programs and highlights the struggle lawmakers faced in coming up with ways to pay for what have typically popular ideas.
The investments include $109 billion on roads and highways, $15 billion on electric vehicle infrastructure and transit systems and $65 billion toward broadband, among other expenditures on airports, drinking water systems and $47 billion in resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.
Funds will be tapped from a range of sources — without a full tally yet, according to a White House document.
Money will come from $125 billion in COVID-19 relief funds approved in 2020 but not yet spent, as well as untapped unemployment insurance funds that Democrats have been hesitant to poach. Other revenue is expected by going harder after tax cheats by beefing up Internal Revenue Service enforcement that Portman said could yield $100 billion.
The rest is a hodge-podge of asset sales and accounting tools, including funds coming from 5G telecommunication spectrum lease sales, strategic petroleum reserve and an expectation that the sweeping investment will generate economic growth.
The senators from both parties stressed that the deal will create jobs for the economy and rebuild the nation's standing on the global stage, a belief that clearly transcended the partisan interests and created a framework for the deal.
