Republicans plan to offer their own infrastructure bill that would spend about $ 650 billion, a GOP source told Fox News, while the White House and congressional Democrats continue to push President Biden’s $ 2 trillion plus spending plan.
The proposal comes after Republicans complained for weeks that the president’s ‘American Jobs Plan’ spent well under half of its money on infrastructure and as the White House said it was open to negotiations.
Fox News is told that the GOP plan will include money for broadband internet. The IDP account is expected to be presented sometime during the May recess.
$ 2 T EXPENDITURE PLAN, PROMOTED AS INFRASTRUCTURE BILL, BEST LESS THAN HALF IN INFRASTRUCTURE
Republicans have expressed doubts about the White House’s sincerity over infrastructure negotiations, especially after the president rejected the efforts of several moderate IDP senators to negotiate coronavirus relief negotiations.
But the IDP Infrastructure Bill could serve as a first salvo in discussions on the issue. A Republican source told Fox News that the $ 650 billion GOP proposal would be much larger than a previous $ 300 billion infrastructure package.
“What I would like to do is return to what I consider to be the usual definition of infrastructure in terms of job creation. These are roads, bridges, ports, airports, including broadband in addition. Water infrastructure,” says sen. Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., told CNBC earlier Wednesday. “I would probably say between six and eight hundred billion – but we have not put it all together yet.”
Mitt Romney, R-Utah, spoke on Tuesday of a potential GOP infrastructure proposal, saying the number [$800B] seems a bit high, but there may be some elements in it that I do not know. Broadband will be part of it, water, sewage, as well as roads, airports, and so on. ‘
Congress Democrats, meanwhile, have made some of the other elements of the Biden “American Jobs Plan” important to them.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Friday released a list of its top priorities in the Biden Plan, which includes “Care Economy”, housing and climate change. Republicans specifically slammed the Biden plan over its money for home care, climate change and housing. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Called Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” a “Trojan horse.”
“I think we really need to update what we mean by infrastructure for the 21st century,” Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News Sunday this month in support of the elements of the Biden plan. “If you look at the number of housing units, it’s construction, then you have to build housing across the country to ensure that there are more affordable housing units where people have access to jobs and economic opportunities.”
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Deese added: “For everyone out there … who are parents caring for a parent or adult child with disabilities, they know that if you do not have an infrastructure to care for your loved ones, you can as If you do not work effectively, you will not be able to operate effectively in the 21st century economy. ‘
To get a bill passed by the Senate, Democrats will have to get either 10 Republicans on board to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold, or by budget reconciliation, a procedure that bypasses the filibuster.
It is not yet clear which way they are going to choose, but they have prepared to move the bill through reconciliation without GOP support. They argued that a bill could be dual without the support of Republican lawmakers – as long as Republicans support it in the public vote.
Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report.