BROADER GOALS
President Biden rebuffs GOP infrastructure offer.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday dismissed a fresh Republican infrastructure proposal that offered modestly more spending but fell short of “his objectives to grow the economy,” the White House said.
His reaction cast further doubt on the two parties’ prospects for striking compromise on one of the administration’s chief legislative priorities.
The White House released the statement after Mr. Biden spoke by phone with West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the chief GOP negotiator. Both sides said the two would speak again on Monday, but Mr. Biden’s team made clear the president will be casting about for talks with other senators.
“The President expressed his gratitude for her effort and goodwill, but also indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis, and create new jobs,” the White House said.
A Capito statement provided no detail about their discussion or the new offer.
Making the pitch for Republicans, Ms. Capito had suggested about a $50 billion boost above the previous Republican offer of $ 928 billion, the White House said, still leaving the GOP well short of the $1.7 trillion that Mr. Biden is seeking.
In a further sign that a deal with Ms. Capito was seeming increasingly less likely, the White House said Mr. Biden told Ms. Capito that he would “continue to engage a number of senators in both parties in the hopes of achieving a more substantial package.”
Earlier in the day, after the release of a modest May jobs report, Mr. Biden made the case for his robust investment package to push the economy past the COVID-19 crisis and downturn, and into a new era.
“Now is the time to build on the progress we’ve made,” Mr. Biden told reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Del. “We need to make those investments today to continue to succeed tomorrow.”
After returning to the White House, Mr. Biden spoke with Ms. Capito by telephone. The White House had been eyeing a deadline early next week as Congress returns from its Memorial Day break to see progress toward a deal. Meanwhile, Democrats are setting the ground work for a go-it-alone approach. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has indicated that Mr. Biden will look to act without Republican support if there is no consensus.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed any hard-set deadline Friday and said the administration continues to talk to lawmakers from both parties.
“There’s runway left,” Ms. Psaki told reporters at the White House. “We’re going to keep a range of pathways open.”
For weeks, the president has been engaged in talks with GOP senators trying to strike a compromise on Mr. Biden’s top legislative a priority, the big infrastructure investment package. While the two sides appear to have narrowed the price gap between his initial $2.3 trillion proposal and the GOP’s $568 billion opening bid, they remain far apart on the scope of the deal and how to pay for it.
Republicans are showing no interest in Mr. Biden’s latest proposal for a 15% corporate minimum tax rate that would ensure all companies pay something in taxes, rather than allowing so many write-offs or deductions that they contribute zero to the Treasury.
A Republican familiar with the talks and granted anonymity to discuss the private assessment said the GOP senators view that idea as an unnecessary tax hike.
Instead, Republicans are insisting on using untapped COVID-19 relief funds to pay for the infrastructure investments. Mr. Biden’s team has rejected that approach.
Still, neither Mr. Biden nor the GOP senators appear ready to call off talks, even as Democrats prepare to use budget rules to pass any big package on their own, without Republican votes.
On Friday, House Democrats released a plan for spending $547 billion over the next five years on road, mass transit and rail projects, a blueprint of their priorities and a potential building block for Mr. Biden’s broader package.
The proposal from Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, continues existing programs set to expire and adds key pieces of the larger measure Mr. Biden is negotiating with Republicans.
Mr. DeFazio’s legislation doesn’t address how to pay for the projects. He called the effort a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to move our transportation planning out of the 1950s and toward our clean energy future.”
His bill would authorize up to $343 billion for roads, bridges and safety improvements. Another $109 billion would go to public transit programs and $95 billion would go to freight and passenger rail system, including a tripling of funding for Amtrak.