Much Reduced Biden Infrastructure Bill Meets Rejection as Democrats and Republicans Continue To Disagree

Efforts to reach a compromise agreement on an infrastructure bill are in jeopardy after Senate Republicans refused President Joe Biden's $1.7 trillion counteroffer on Friday, highlighting significant holes in the talks. The rejection, which comes after weeks of negotiations that have escalated in recent days, casts serious doubt on Biden's objective of passing a broad infrastructure bill with bipartisan support.

Republicans quickly reject Biden's Infrastructure bill offer

Biden offered modest compromises to reduce funds for research and development, supply chains, construction, and small companies in his counteroffer, cut from an initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. Nonetheless, it will maintain tax hikes that Republicans have said they would oppose in all conditions.

Other reforms in Biden's American Jobs Plan counter-proposal include reducing funding for highways and bridges from $100 billion to $65 billion, reflecting the sum proposed in a $586 billion plan from Senate Republicans. Republicans quickly shot down the counter-proposal, USA Today reported.

The initiative is currently above the threshold of what would reach Congress with bipartisan support, according to a spokeswoman for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is overseeing Republican talks with the Biden administration. Capito's communications officer, Kelley Moore, said the two parties are further apart today than after meeting with Biden last week.

During a conference call with a group of six Republican senators headed by Capito on Friday, senior White House officials, including Steve Ricchetti, adviser to the president, announced the counteroffer. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were both parts of the White House delegation. On Tuesday, the same groups gathered.

Republicans will be turned off by Biden's counteroffer, which holds the president's plan to lift income rates to 28 percent over the next decade to pay for new spending. Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican, drew a "red line" last week, saying he would oppose any bill that would reverse former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts by raising the corporate tax rate.

Biden's counteroffer, including the small compromises, holds other expenditures that Republicans condemn. McConnell and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy have stated that they want the package to focus only on physical infrastructures, such as roads, bridges, airports, and broadband extensions. Rather than on electric cars, home caregiving, and other "human infrastructure" items suggested by Biden.

GOP senators directly hit Biden's American Jobs Plan

On top of conventional highway infrastructure, Biden's American Jobs Plan will provide billions for elderly and disabled services, the expansion of hybrid cars, and other investments. He also wants to spend $1.8 trillion on families and children.

Per The Hill, the direct hit at White House staff mirrors Republican senators' criticisms of Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was based on pandemic relief, during the unsuccessful negotiations. The ten Republicans who discussed COVID-19 relief with Biden earlier this year said that Biden appeared open to their proposals during a February 1 Oval Office meeting. But White House advisers, including White House chief of staff Ron Klain, later reigned in the negotiations.

The GOP will review the White House counteroffer, said a spokeswoman for Capito, and participate in discussions with the administration. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), a prominent progressive, seized on the lack of momentum at Friday's meeting to urge Democratic lawmakers to swiftly act on a significant infrastructure project requiring special protection under the budget reconciliation mechanism to avoid a GOP filibuster.

If the negotiations have not broken down, the negative assumption will likely raise new concerns among Democrats that time runs out to reach an agreement. The president's office is working against a Memorial Day deadline to see if a consensus can be achieved. The lack of substantial progress away from Biden's $2.3 trillion proposal or the GOP's planned $568 billion solution had sparked skepticism on both sides.

"This plan demonstrates a desire to downsize," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, announcing the latest bid as negotiations between key Cabinet secretaries and GOP senators were ongoing at a critical point toward a settlement, KIMT reported.