Hope for a bipartisan agreement on infrastructure spending has risen from the dead, as Senate Republicans prepare to present yet another counterproposal to President Biden.
The White House initially pitched a $2.3 trillion dollar plan. After a round of negotiations, the proposed price tag has dropped to $1.7 trillion. The highest GOP offer stands at approximately $600 billion.
But The Associated Press reports that Republicans will up their offer to $1 trillion later this week – thats the lowest number Biden said he’d consider.
“This is going to be a very good offer, and it moves in his direction,” Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, told reporters earlier this week.
Funding for the infrastructure package remains a contentious issue. Biden wants to increase the corporate tax rate from from 21% to 28%, a move that would roll back one of the most salient aspects of the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts. Republicans, on the other hand, want to tap into unused COVID-19 relief funds. The AP reports that $700 billion remains in unspent virus aid.
“My view is that we gave that to the cities and states and counties with the understanding that it may take a little time for them to spend it,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat. “I think it’d be a big mistake to try to claw that back.”
There’s also a philosophical difference between the right and the left that needs to be resolved. Republicans want the package to focus on ‘traditional’ infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, and highways. But the original Biden proposal took a more expansive view, and proposed funds for things like child care, home care, and education.
According to CBS News, Republicans felt that Biden accepted a narrower definition of infrastructure in their most recent meetings, but his aides walked back his promise to compromise.
Democrats can try to pass an infrastructure bill without GOP support, but a razor thin majority in the Senate and the threat of a filibuster imperils a go-it-alone approach. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said “100% of my focus” is on stopping Biden’s agenda.
Meanwhile, a group of bipartisan Senators led by Republican Mitt Romney of Utah are working on their own infrastructure proposal.
“They’re on the front burner, we’re kind of the back-burner backup,” Romney said, referring to the main negotiations between the White House and a GOP contingent led by Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia.
Biden has initially proposed Memorial Day as the deadline for an infrastructure deal. It seems unlikely to be met. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’ll bring the issue to the floor in July, no matter the status.