Senate Republicans on Thursday announced a counteroffer to the White House over a federal infrastructure bill. The Republican offering increased its total cost to $928 billion, almost double its previous offer. The bill still is well short of the White House’s $1.7 trillion offer.
“This counteroffer delivers on much of what President Biden provided in his feedback to us during our Oval Office meeting while still focusing on core infrastructure investments,” Senate Republicans stated. “As evidenced by our work on bipartisan drinking water and surface transportation infrastructure bills, we can work in a bipartisan fashion on these priorities and deliver real results.”
The Republican bill provides $506 billion to roads, bridges and major projects. Funding includes $14 billion on resilience, $4 billion on electrical vehicle infrastructure and $800 million on reconnecting communities
The bill sets aside $98 billion on public transit, $46 billion on passenger and freight rail, $21 billion on safety, $22 billion on ports and waterways, $56 billion on airports, $22 billion on western water storage, $72 billion on water infrastructure, $65 billion on broadband infrastructure and $20 billion on infrastructure financing.
“Today’s counteroffer is a serious effort to reach a compromise with President Biden that achieves our shared infrastructure priorities in a fiscally responsible way,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the lead negotiator for Republicans. “It is our hope that this proposal sets us on a path toward an agreement that tackles the issues facing our nation.”
Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House was grateful for the work by Capito and Republicans, and it was encouraging to see the funding level approach $1 trillion.
“We appreciate the hard work that went in to making this proposal and continuing these negotiations,” Psaki said. “At first review, we note several constructive additions to the group’s previous proposals, including on roads, bridges and rail. At the same time, we remain concerned that their plan still provides no substantial new funds for critical job-creating needs, such as fixing our veterans’ hospitals, building modern rail systems, repairing our transit systems, removing dangerous lead pipes and powering America’s leadership in a job-creating clean energy economy, among other things.”
Psaki said White House staff would work actively with House and Senate members during the congressional break next week to create a clear direction when legislative business resumes the week of June 7.
