Parties hash out $304B proposal with roads focus

GOP, White House remain at odds on broader spending

WASHINGTON — The Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee released a $304 billion road-funding bill Saturday, a bipartisan compromise that seeks to address climate change and help rural areas while boosting overall spending by more than a third.

The bill was unveiled as negotiations between Senate Republicans and the White House over a broader infrastructure package were faltering, and it carries different weight for both parties.

The bill would represent a significant boost to transportation spending, but is not the kind of “generational investment” the administration has in mind. Democrats see it as laying a foundation for President Joe Biden to build on.

For Republicans, though, it would deliver all the funding they are seeking.

Nonetheless, the bill does demonstrate areas where Democrats and Republicans can find compromise, incorporating elements of Biden’s plan and some top Republican priorities. The committee is scheduled to meet

Wednesday to consider the bill publicly.

Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., the committee’s chairman, said the bill represented a “vital foundation” for the president’s American Jobs Plan of as much as $2.3 trillion.

“I’m proud to join with my colleagues in crafting a bipartisan bill that invests in our nation’s transportation infrastructure at a historic high level, and in doing so, helps create jobs, curbs our carbon emissions and expands opportunities for the American people,” he said in a statement.

It incorporates Democratic priorities on the environment, pedestrian safety, racial equity and so-called complete streets. It includes $6.4 billion for states to reduce carbon emissions from transportation and $2.5 billion for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, while also allowing states to spend other federal money on chargers. The bill provides $500 million to help cities knock down or otherwise rethink highways that often were built through Black neighborhoods.

Those elements are in line with Biden’s plan, but it would invest far more heavily in some of those initiatives, calling for $15 billion for chargers and $20 billion to support racial equity programs.

At the same time, the Senate bill also includes provisions likely to appeal in particular to Republicans. It proposes an overhaul of the environmental review process for major projects, setting a goal of completing it in two years — one of the party’s top priorities. It also includes $2 billion for grants to rural communities.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., her party’s leader on the committee and one of its chief negotiators with the White House, said she was proud of how the bill would help rural communities like those in her state.

“Not only will this comprehensive, bipartisan legislation help us rebuild and repair America’s surface transportation system, but it will also help us build new transportation infrastructure,” Capito said in a statement. “These critical investments will help to provide economic opportunities now and for future generations.”

HARD PARTS AWAIT

The bill forms just one part of a long-term reauthorization of road, transit and safety programs that Congress must pass by Sept. 30, when the current law expires. And in many ways, the highway portion could prove to be the most straightforward.

On transit, which is the responsibility of the Senate’s Banking Committee, the parties have bigger disagreements.

An infrastructure framework issued by Senate Republicans in April proposed holding transit spending at the level in the last long-term reauthorization bill from 2015 — an approach that would effectively cut spending. Democrats are seeking to dramatically increase funding for transit, arguing that getting people to ride buses and trains is vital if the nation is to meet its climate change goals and ensure people who don’t have cars can easily get to work.

The roads bill would require a national program to test a tax on the number of miles people drive as a possible replacement for the gas tax. But it doesn’t propose a way to pay for the spending it envisions, which is far higher than what the Congressional Budget Office projects will be available from existing revenue.

Figuring out how to pay is the responsibility of yet another committee in the Senate.

In the House, the transportation bill largely falls to a single committee. Republicans on the panel pitched a roads-focused $400 billion plan last week, and Democrats are expected to introduce their proposal early next month.

The broader negotiations between Senate Republicans and the White House hit an impasse Friday. The White House proposed slimming its package from $2.3 trillion to $1.7 trillion, but sought to leave intact contentious provisions like raising corporate taxes and funding child care and education.

Republican lawmakers issued a statement Friday describing the revised offer as “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support,” saying that the two sides were now “further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they were after one meeting with President Biden.”

Republicans’ initial counterproposal to the White House called for $568 billion in spending, including $299 billion for roads. The Senate bill fulfills much of what Republicans are seeking, which could dampen their enthusiasm for continuing discussions with Biden.