Biden to highlight infrastructure deal’s roads and bridges, not legislative path

President Biden plans a sales pitch for the roads, bridges and broadband parts of the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

US President Joe Biden will highlight infrastructure deal’s roads and bridges, not legislative path. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP

President Biden plans to open a sales pitch this week for the roads, bridges and broadband at the centre of the bipartisan infrastructure deal, seeking to shift the focus away from its complicated legislative path in Congress and his own messaging stumbles.

Mr. Biden will travel to La Crosse, Wis., on Tuesday to highlight ways he believes the plan negotiated with Republicans and Democrats would bolster the economy and help families and small businesses. Wisconsin is a top presidential battleground and was narrowly carried by Mr. Biden in 2020. It is also home to Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), one of the most vulnerable Republican senators seeking re-election next year.

The White House has backed both the roughly $US1 trillion infrastructure deal and a separate, broader antipoverty effort that could cost trillions more and is expected to draw only Democratic support.

Mr. Biden is seeking to put the focus back on the contents of his agenda, and leaving the process and timing to Congress, after he was forced to back away from issuing a veto threat to the infrastructure bill if it isn’t tied directly to the larger partisan bill. Some Republican senators had said that threat could undermine their support.

Underscoring the fight over the two tracks, in a statement Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Mr. Biden should push congressional Democratic leaders to also delink the fate of the bipartisan bill from the broader antipoverty plan.

“The president cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process,” Mr. McConnell said.

In the Senate, which is currently on break, Democrats hope to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by drawing enough Republican votes to reach the 60-vote threshold required for most legislation to advance. They also hope to pass the broader bill, which proposes expanding child care, Medicare, affordable housing and other programs under a special process tied to the budget, known as reconciliation, that requires only a simple majority.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, asked about Mr. McConnell’s comments, said the president “is eager to sign both pieces of legislation into law, and he is going to focus his time and his effort on selling the benefits of these packages, what they would do for the American people.” In an opinion article published on Yahoo News late Monday, Mr. Biden touted the bipartisan deal and said the country also needed to make investments in what he termed human infrastructure, calling it “inextricably intertwined with physical infrastructure.” White House officials said the president and members of his administration would make a major push to promote the infrastructure legislation this summer, putting him before audiences in battleground states and those represented by key lawmakers. White House aides have pointed to polling showing the popularity of the infrastructure projects and noted support from Republicans and business groups.

Asked about the suggestion from Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) that the centrist senator would support roughly $2 trillion of spending in the reconciliation bill, Ms. Psaki said the administration was in the early stages of the talks.

“There’s disagreement even within the Democratic Party about what the size of a reconciliation package should look like. And as these discussions proceed, there will be disagreements to resolve, there will be compromises to be made in order to get a final package,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) plans to bring up in July both the bipartisan bill and the budget resolution, which will set the overall spending levels and parameters of the larger package. Lawmakers expect to work on passing that proposal in September. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said last week she wouldn’t bring up the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the broader package had passed the Senate.

Mr. Biden’s proposal for an antipoverty plan released earlier this year included extending the expanded child tax credit, providing tuition-free community college and prekindergarten, and more. Mr. Biden proposed funding it through taxes on the wealthiest and highest-income Americans.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) plans to draft a $6 trillion package, which includes all of Mr. Biden’s infrastructure and caregiving proposals, as well as an expansion of Medicare benefits, affordable housing and other programs.

Mr. Sanders has said he intends to offset the cost of roughly half the package, paying for the continuing programs by reversing parts of the 2017 GOP tax overhaul and other tax changes.

“We have never seen any of these go from point A to point B to point C without hiccups, bumps,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), a centrist on the Budget Committee, to MSNBC.

After reaching the deal with Republicans on infrastructure, he said, “now I have got to roll up my sleeves and work with friends like Bernie Sanders and say, OK, what are the areas that didn’t get covered,” particularly on human infrastructure and climate policy.

Dow Jones Newswires