White House tries to calm concerns on spending deal

WASHINGTON — Aiming to preserve a fragile bipartisan deal on infrastructure, President Biden said Saturday he didn’t mean to suggest he would veto the nearly $1 trillion bill unless Congress also passed a larger package to expand the social safety net. Speaking on Thursday moments after fulfilling his hopes of reaching a bipartisan accord, Biden appeared to put the deal in jeopardy with his comment that the infrastructure bill would have to move in “tandem” with a larger bill that he and Democrats aim to pass along party lines. Though Biden had been clear he would pursue roughly $6 trillion in new spending for child care, Medicare and other investments, Republicans balked at the president’s notion that he would not sign one without the other. “If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” Biden said then of the infrastructure bill. “It’s in tandem.“

By Saturday, Biden was walking those comments back, after his top negotiators Steve Ricchetti and Louisa Terrell worked to assure senators that Biden remained enthusiastic about the deal.

“My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent,” Biden said in a statement.

“I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigor,” Biden added. “It would be good for the economy, good for our country, good for our people. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation.”

Biden’s earlier remarks had drawn sharp criticism from some Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., who tweeted on Friday, “No deal by extortion!”

Tensions appeared to calm afterward, when senators from the group of negotiators convened a conference call, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. The two measures were always expected to move together through Congress: the bipartisan plan and a second bill that would advance under special rules allowing for passage solely with majority Democratic votes. Biden reiterated that was his plan on Saturday, but said he was not conditioning one on the other.