Infrastructure deal in doubt as GOP senators ‘frustrated’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal was thrown in doubt Friday as Republican senators felt “blindsided” by his insistence that it must move in tandem with his bigger package, while the White House doubled down on the strategy and said it should have come as no surprise.
The rare accord over some $1 trillion in investments faced new uncertainty barely 24 hours after Biden strode to the White House driveway, flanked by 10 senators from a bipartisan group, with all sides beaming over the compromise.
Senators were described as “stunned,” “floored” and “frustrated” after Biden publicly put the conditions on accepting their deal, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the reactions.
“No deal by extortion!” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who was asked at her briefing about the GOP dismay, said Biden has publicly discussed the two-track strategy on many occasions.
“That hasn’t been a secret. He hasn’t said it quietly. He hasn’t even whispered it,” she said.
The path ahead is now uncertain.
Senators launched into calls Friday seeking answers from the White House after a tumultuous past month of on-again, off-again negotiations over Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure proposals, his top legislative priority.
The Democrats’ twotrack strategy has been to consider both the bipartisan deal and their own more sweeping priorities side by side, a way to assure liberal lawmakers the smaller deal won’t be the only one.
But Biden’s vow to essentially veto or refuse to sign the bipartisan accord without the companion package being negotiated by Democrats, which is now eyed at nearly $6 trillion in child care, Medicare and other investments, was an additional step that throws the process into doubt.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky set the tone for the turn of events, signaling late Thursday where the party was headed.
He framed the argument in a floor speech and a subsequent Fox News interview, declaring that Biden’s messaging from his two news conferences Thursday “makes your head spin.”
Senators who were part of the bipartisan group were initially thrilled at striking the compromise.
Only after they tuned in later to Biden’s second news conference, where he outlined the path ahead, did frustrations mount and frantic phone calls begin.
At the press conference, Biden was asked what he meant by having the two packages move through Congress to his desk in “tandem.”
“If they don’t come, I’m not signing. Real simple,” Biden said.
Senators from the group were never told of such an explicit linking of the two packages, the two people familiar with the discussions said.
It never came up in their talks with the White House advisers or with Biden himself during Thursday’s meeting of the group of 10 key negotiators, they said.
Ten Republican senators would be needed to pass the bipartisan accord in the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most bills.
Democrats plan to push the broader package through using a special budget process that would allow passage of their own priorities on a simple majority vote of 51 senators, with Vice President Kamala Harris a tiebreaker. But progressive lawmakers have pushed for the more robust investments and could withhold their votes on any bipartisan package.