McCarthy faces speakership test on infrastructure vote

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blessed President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal, but with the House majority on the line, Kevin McCarthy is facing a different decision: how harshly to oppose it.

With the House voting this week on advancing the infrastructure legislation, a $3.5 trillion Democratic spending framework plus an election reform bill, Republicans are still waiting to receive guidance on whether the GOP leader will whip against or withhold his influential fire on the bipartisan plan.

“You can’t really develop a whip strategy until you know what votes are going to be called,” said Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the top Republican on the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee overseeing highways and transit.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi can pass the bipartisan bill and the broad Democratic spending plan without Republican votes, but she’s staring down warring factions in her own caucus and could use any breathing room GOP votes could offer.

Progressives are threatening to sink the bipartisan deal unless she holds to her commitment to tie the vote to the party-line spending plan, and moderates oppose the broader spending framework without a swift, standalone vote on infrastructure. She can only afford to lose three Democrats absent any GOP votes on infrastructure — it’s already a foregone conclusion that all Republicans will fight the Democratic social spending plan, and some are even considering procedural antics to protest the bill.

Meanwhile, McCarthy is navigating a political tightrope of his own. Most Republicans are expected to oppose the infrastructure bill, but with the GOP largely expected to take the House majority in 2022 and McCarthy openly vying for the speakership, he must both ensure moderates don’t feel left out to dry and also shore up his right flank.

McCarthy, for his part, has said he opposes the bill. The California Republican told Fox News on Tuesday that he believes “zero” Republicans would support the bill if it is tied to reconciliation.

“He has spoken directly with many members about his concerns with the infrastructure bill — from its lack of game-changing regulatory reform to over $250 billion in missing payfors — and does not support the bill in its current form,” McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar said in a statement, while hitting the Democrats’ budget as “a socialist roadmap.”

Some Republicans hope McCarthy actively whips against the bill, whether it is tied to reconciliation or not — and they are curious if McCarthy can get all his members in line in the event of a standalone vote.

Meanwhile, many centrist Republicans who say they worked with senators to craft the bipartisan legislation firmly hold that their support of the bill is contingent on Pelosi’s next move. But they also want to see if McCarthy pushes the conference against the bill.

Some Republicans noted an episode earlier this year, when McCarthy told his conference that he would not whip his members against a measure that would’ve established the 9/11-style Jan. 6 commission. However, the GOP leader reversed course days later and conducted an informal campaign to persuade his conference to vote against the measure, a pivot that occurred a day after he spoke with Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. It signaled to some moderates that McCarthy will cater to his right-flank at the expense of his more moderate members.

While Pelosi is expected to bring the broader party-line package to a vote on Tuesday, the bipartisan infrastructure bill vote is not expected next week. The California Democrat has vowed to wait until after the Senate passes the broader social spending bill through the reconciliation process before bringing both to the floor for passage, arguing this dual-track plan is the only way for Democrats to get the two priorities to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Members of the House GOP have already tied the $3.5 trillion budget resolution to the $1 trillion infrastructure package, arguing Democrats have ensured the two go hand in hand and therefore made it easier for Republicans to unify against both.

“It certainly makes it easier for us to oppose it,” said Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), the House GOP Conference vice-chair. “They’ve squandered the opportunity for all of us to work together for the American people by tying it to all these big government agenda items that we just can’t go along with.”

Time may also favor that strategy. If House Democrats ultimately do wait until the Senate passes the broader spending bill through reconciliation, Republican leadership could use the extra span of time — several weeks or even months — to try to unite the conference against the bill.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the GOP co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, indicated this week in an interview with MSNBC that the 29 Republicans in the group are “in play” for the infrastructure bill, while noting that the degree of support depends on the extent to which it is detached from reconciliation. The Pennsylvanian wouldn’t divulge specific numbers.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the bipartisan group, echoed those sentiments.

“I think it would get good support if it’s a totally separate vote, unconnected … Most Americans want a basic, hard infrastructure bill. Most Americans don’t want a $3.5 trillion Bernie Sanders gift bag,” Bacon said in an interview, praising moderate Democrats for their push for a standalone vote and hitting Pelosi for holding the package “hostage.”

The internal wrestling among House Democrats is not lost on Republicans.

“The Democrats are tied up in a pretzel over this, with both wings of their party duking it out over how to move forward,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

While the infrastructure bill received a surprising degree of support from 19 Republicans in the Senate, including the support of McConnell the upper chamber does not reflect the sentiment of their more populist and less politically insulated Republican counterparts in the House. Senate Republicans are also more willing to brush off pushback from former President Donald Trump than GOP House members.

Trump in a statement earlier this month suggested that passing an infrastructure package would be a win for the Biden administration that will be “used against the Republican Party in the upcoming elections in 2022 and 2024.” He claimed any GOP lawmakers who help Democrats approve the legislation are Republicans in name only, an insult used within the GOP to suggest disloyalty to the party. Trump’s administration repeatedly vowed, but ultimately failed, to pass its own infrastructure bill.

The Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus on the Hill, including roughly 150 House Republicans, is also fiercely opposed to the infrastructure deal.

Republicans can pull a variety of procedural tactics as a form of protest, such as trying to force the House to leave or take difficult side votes known as motions to recommit. They are also expected to try to pivot the focus to Afghanistan, seeking to shoot the Biden administration’s new Achilles’ heel over the administration’s bungled plan to leave the country, leaving thousands of U.S. forces, citizens and allies waiting for evacuation as the Taliban take control of the war-torn region.

In a sign of the further-fractured wings of the GOP, members of the House Freedom Caucus are adamantly opposed to the infrastructure legislation, with some threatening to take action against those who support it.

Freshman firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a member of the far-right group, has vowed in ads and social media posts to financially support candidates who run against “weak” Republicans that support the infrastructure bill. Her leadership PAC subsequently received a significant jump in donations in the span of days.

“Any Republican who votes for this $1,200,000,000,000 bill is a traitor,” Greene said.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/23/mccarthy-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-506465
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House moderates call for immediate vote on bipartisan infrastructure bill

Moderate House Democrats are calling for the House to immediately vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.Eight moderates, including mem…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/567324-house-moderates-call-for-immediate-house-vote-on-bipartisan-infrastructure
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McConnell stresses infrastructure’s popularity with Republicans after Trump criticism

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stressed that infrastructure is popular with Democrats as well as Republicans after former President Trump criticized a $1 trillion bipartisan pro…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/567294-mcconnell-stresses-infrastructure-is-popular-with-republicans-after-trump
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Schumer signals Tuesday morning final vote for Senate infrastructure package

After weeks of late nights, weekend work and angst, the Senate appears to be headed toward greenlighting its bipartisan infrastructure bill by Tuesday morning.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the package is on a “glide path for passage tomorrow morning.”

Technically, the Senate’s procedural clock won’t allow a final vote until 4 a.m. Tuesday. But senators are working on an agreement that would instead allow the vote to come later Tuesday, during more normal business hours. The vote has not yet been scheduled, but could be later this afternoon.

“It may have taken all weekend, but the Senate is now finally on the precipice of passing major bipartisan infrastructure legislation,” Schumer said on the floor Monday morning, noting that Sunday night’s successful procedural vote “put the bill on a glide path for passage tomorrow morning.”

Acknowledging that some have said it’s “unachievable on such a short timeline and in such a slow-moving chamber,” Schumer stuck to his plan to complete work on both the infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill before the August recess.

“Earlier this summer, I suggested the two-track strategy to President [Joe] Biden and [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi,” he said. “We all agreed it was the best way to move forward, and we are working in concert to make it happen.”

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) also said Monday that he plans to put forward a unanimous consent vote “sometime this afternoon” and that Republicans are currently checking with their members “to determine whether there is opposition on our side.”

“We’re not aware of any, but we haven’t finished that process,” he said.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/09/schumer-infrastructure-package-senate-502839
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Senate resumes infrastructure debate as Trump threatens Republicans who back bill

Trump says it ‘will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal’ as session to resume at noon

Senators resumed a weekend session toward passage of a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure package on Sunday amid threats from former president Donald Trump who raged against any Republicans who support the measure.

Majority leader Chuck Schumer stressed to colleagues that they could proceed the “easy way or the hard way”, while a few Republican senators appeared determined to run out the clock for days. “We’ll keep proceeding until we get this bill done,” Schumer said.

Continue reading…

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/08/us-infrastructure-bill-senate-session-vote
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Hirono ‘more confident’ than usual on infrastructure and spending bills

Sen. Mazie Hirono said Saturday she believes both the infrastructure and spending bills will be passed.

“I feel more confident than I usually feel that we’re going to get there because the Democrats want to get on to the American family plan, as I mentioned, that will enable people to get back to work,” Hirono (D-Hawaii) told Ali Velshi on MSNBC.

The Senate is expected to vote later Saturday to advance the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has sworn not to let the August recess begin until the chamber passes both the bipartisan deal and the blueprint for the $3.5 trillion social spending package, which can be passed without any Republican support.

On Saturday’s vote, Hirono said, “The amendments going forward will have to be by unanimous consent.” The Saturday vote will be to move toward the substitute amendment, she said, and after that, there will need to be agreement “on what amendments will be deemed amendments to vote on.”

If senators can’t agree on amendments, she said, “We’ll have to vote on the bill itself after a week of debate.”

Asked about the progressive Democrats who don’t want to sign on to the infrastructure package until the reconciliation bill is at least written, Hirono said, “I feel quite confident that the 50 Democrats who actually care about getting our economy back on track and millions of women — enabling them to get back to work … that there will be an agreement on the budget bill.”

Velshi pointed out that Hawaii, like California and many other parts of the country, is experiencing wildfires and that the issue is connected to the infrastructure bill, which includes some climate measures.

“In fact, there are weather events happening across the country. Not just in Hawaii, but wildfires in other places to the point where, yeah, we need to put more resources into preventing and what happens after wildfires,” Hirono said. “There’s a lot in the infrastructure bill that will enable both the Republicans and the Democrats … to support it.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/07/hirono-confident-infrastructure-and-spending-bills-502760
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GOP senators look to add $50B for defense into infrastructure bill

Top Senate Republicans are looking to add more than $50 billion in defense funding to bipartisan infrastructure legislation to tackle overdue repairs and upgrade efforts at shipyards, depots, test ranges and defense laboratories.

Senate Appropriations ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) has filed an amendment to the infrastructure package to boost defense funding, which was obtained by POLITICO.

He’s joined by Senate Armed Services ranking member Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

The Republican defense hawks’ effort is the largest, and most detailed, proposal for defense money in an infrastructure bill so far.

The bulk of the funding would go toward Navy and Coast shipyard infrastructure, an effort members of both parties had contemplated for months ahead of the current floor debate. But the proposal also seeks to boost funding for military construction projects, depot upgrades, test ranges, national security labs and the installation of 5G technology.

Shelby’s and Inhofe’s offices did not immediately comment on the effort.

Shipyards: Half of the funding in the amendment, just under $25.4 billion, would go toward upgrades and repairs at Navy and Coast Guard shipyards. Similar proposals have garnered bipartisan support, particularly lawmakers from states with shipyards. The Navy has laid out a decades-long plan to modernize its public shipyards to support new ships and a larger fleet.

Of that total, $21 billion would go toward improvement projects at the Navy’s four public shipyards, mirroring the Navy’s plan.

Another $4 billion would toward private shipyards, split evenly between new construction projects and repairs.

The Coast Guard would receive $350 million for its shipyard improvement needs.

Other funding: The amendment would disperse the rest of the funding to address a wide swath of military infrastructure needs.

It would dedicate $4 billion across the military services and Pentagon to reduce the backlog of facility infrastructure maintenance projects. Another $2 billion would go toward high priority military construction projects.

The proposal would allocate $4.5 billion to depot modernization as well as $2.5 for updates to ammunition plants.

Senators also set aside $4 billion to upgrade military test and training ranges.

An extra $2.5 billion would fund efforts to install 5G wireless networking technology at Defense Department facilities.

Another $1.5 billion would go toward efforts to remediate PFAS chemicals at military installations.

Outside of the Pentagon, the proposal allocates just over $3.8 billion for the Energy Department for construction projects related to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Savannah River nuclear facility and other related projects.

State of play: The Senate is poring through amendments this week to the bipartisan bill that would dedicate $550 billion in new spending to roads, bridges, climate resilience and broadband technology. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer may soon look to cut off debate on the bill, which could spill into the weekend or early next week.

Tacking on $50 billion in emergency defense spending, and thereby pushing the portion of the bill dedicated to new spending to more than $600 billion, would be a considerable shift in the price tag and focus of the bill, which was painstakingly hashed out by a bipartisan group of senators.

Republicans may line up behind an effort to boost spending on defense facilities, where there is wide agreement that funding has lagged. And while some Democrats endorsed specific efforts — such as including money to overhaul shipyards or defense industrial facilities such as depots and arsenals — others have railed against using an infrastructure bill as a backdoor to increasing defense spending.

Previous pushes for defense money: The amendment from Shelby, Inhofe and Wicker is the most expensive effort to include defense facility funding in an infrastructure deal so far, though it isn’t the first.

Democrats and Republicans, led by Wicker in the Senate and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) in the House, have pushed for months to include shipyard funding in an infrastructure deal.

The bipartisan House Military Depot, Arsenal, Ammunition Plant and Industrial Facilities Caucus, led by Democrat Cheri Bustos of Illinois and Republican Blake Moore of Utah, has also pushed for a broader array of funding for defense industrial facility improvements, including shipyards, depots, arsenals and ranges.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/05/gop-senators-look-to-add-50b-for-defense-into-infrastructure-bill-502622
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Connor O’Brien

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Poll shows broad support for bipartisan infrastructure bill

Roughly 7 in 10 voters support the bipartisan infrastructure package that would inject $1.2 trillion into revamping the nation’s roads, bridges and public transit, among other things, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harri…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/565958-poll-shows-broad-support-for-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill
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This week: Senate starts infrastructure sprint

The Senate is formally kicking off a legislative sprint to advance Democrats’ two-track infrastructure strategy, after a bipartisan group finalized their bill over the weekend.Senators are piling the work up agains…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/565876-this-week-senate-starts-infrastructure-sprint
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Susan Collins: Infrastructure bill has enough Republican support to pass in Senate

Sen. Susan Collins predicted Sunday that the bipartisan infrastructure package will have enough Republican support to pass the chamber this week.

“I think we will be able to lay down the bill later today and begin perhaps consideration of some amendments,” the Maine Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union” ahead of senators’ expected return to session Sunday afternoon. “My hope is that we’ll finish the bill by the end of the week.”

Senators have haggled for weeks over the bipartisan infrastructure package, which includes $550 billion in new spending for roads, bridges, public transit and broadband.

Collins told CNN host Jake Tapper that she anticipated the bill would garner the necessary support from at least 10 Republicans to meet a 60-vote threshold for passage.

Senators voted 66-28 last week on a procedural vote to move forward on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The final legislative text has not yet been released, although Collins said Sunday that “large parts of text” were already shared with Senate offices and lawmakers had worked overnight to finish up the spending provisions of the bill.

“This bill is good for America,” Collins said. “Every senator can look at bridges and roads and need for more broadband, waterways in their state, seaports and airports, and see the benefits, the very concrete benefits, no pun intended, of this legislation.”

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/01/susan-collins-infrastructure-bill-501965
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Manchin: No guarantee reconciliation package will pass

Sen. Joe Manchin would not guarantee Sunday that a Democratic-led reconciliation package would garner the necessary votes for passage, even as he predicted the bipartisan infrastructure package would pass the Senate this week.

“I can’t really guarantee anybody,” the moderate Democratic senator from West Virginia said on CNN. “And I have not guaranteed anybody on any of these pieces of legislation. Would we like to do more? Yes, you can do what you can pay for. This is paid for, our infrastructure bill is all paid for.”

Manchin called for looking at the reconciliation package — which is expected to tackle social programs and “human” infrastructure — through the same lens.

“As far as reconciliation goes, it should be looked at the same,” Manchin said. “That’s why I said we’re going to get the budget resolution. Let’s start the process and then see where it goes.”

Manchin also said he expected the text of the bipartisan bill would be released Sunday, and that senators would start the amendment process on the bill by Monday.

“We should finish up by Thursday, I hope,” he said, before telling “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper he believed the bill would pass.

The bipartisan measure includes $550 billion in new spending for roads, bridges, public transit and broadband, and garnered Republican support last week during a procedural vote to move forward on the measure.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made clear she will not hold a vote on the bill in the House until the Democrat-led $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill passes the Senate. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate Democrat from Arizona, has already indicated she’d like to pare down the package’s cost, angering progressives in the House.

Manchin on Sunday reiterated his own concerns over debt and inflation, and said he wanted to see the pay-fors for the reconciliation measure when asked if he’d like to see a smaller price tag.

“Someone should be concerned about getting your financial house in order,” he said. “So, I’m worried about that. I’m worried about inflation. But, with that, we’re going to pay for it. So, let’s see what the pay-fors — if they’re real.”

“Are we going to go overboard and make ourselves noncompetitive? I wouldn’t be for that,” he added.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/01/manchin-reconciliation-package-501975
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Trump blows fuse over GOP moving forward on infrastructure deal

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Senate Republicans on Thursday after the upper chamber voted to take up …

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/565413-trump-blows-fuse-over-gop-moving-forward-on-infrastructure-deal
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Key senators say infrastructure deal is reached on ‘major issues’

The Senate could begin voting on the final legislation Wednesday evening.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/key-republican-senators-say-infrastructure-deal-reached-major-issues-n1275291
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Senate negotiators race to finish infrastructure bill as failed vote looms

The Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure negotiators are hustling to finish their bill even as hope for a breakthrough dims ahead of an Wednesday test vote that’s likely to fail.

The bipartisan group is slated to meet Tuesday afternoon, after a two-hour Zoom session Monday night with the White House. Though participants reported progress on that call, some in the group privately say the talks are likely to drag into next week given the size and scale of both the potential bill — with nearly $600 billion new spending — as well as disagreements over how to pay for it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set up a Wednesday vote to advance the bill, but GOP leaders signaled Monday evening that Republicans wouldn’t support even beginning debate on legislation that remains unwritten. Schumer insisted on Tuesday it is “not a fish or cut bait moment,” but added that the Senate needed to start the process this week in order to finish the legislation before the August recess.

Schumer also offered the bipartisan group more time to negotiate, if Senate Republicans agree to move forward Wednesday. If the cross-aisle legislation is not finished by Thursday, Schumer said the Senate could consider elements of the underlying infrastructure framework that have already passed key committees.

But that’s not likely to appease Republicans, many of whom want to see cost estimates from Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper before voting to start debate.

“We’re waiting on a [Congressional Budget Office] score. We don’t have leg text. So until we do, I’m not comfortable voting on any procedural motions to move forward,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), one of the senators working on the package.

Still, Young added that he hoped Wednesday’s vote wouldn’t kill the bipartisan negotiations, saying “it would be a shame to throw it all away.”

Schumer’s push to move forward on the bipartisan infrastructure framework comes as Senate Democrats also prepare a $3.5 trillion social spending plan that they expect to push forward without GOP buy-in. Schumer has also set a Wednesday deadline for Senate Democrats to reach an agreement detailing how committees will construct that bill.

It’s not clear if the failure of the bipartisan deal would force an increase in the separate bill’s $3.5 trillion price tag.

Schumer has long insisted that President Joe Biden’s physical infrastructure and social spending plans are proceeding on two separate tracks. Biden and a bipartisan group of 10 senators announced agreement on an infrastructure framework in June, but translating that into legislative text has proven a heavy lift.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican close to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the vote will still fail on Wednesday despite Schumer’s entreaties: “How would he expect us to vote on a bill that doesn’t even exist yet.”

Meanwhile, progressives and key House Democrats are growing increasingly impatient with the bipartisan talks, with some even saying that they hope that the deal falls through. In a meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi hammered Senate Republicans and accused them of attempting to derail the bipartisan talks.

“The public should know they’re rejecting a bipartisan infrastructure approach,” Pelosi told her members, according to people familiar with the remarks.

Pelosi also suggested that the House could tweak whatever bipartisan bill is passed by the Senate, a potential response to the growing unrest among some senior Democrats in her caucus. “When we get the Senate bill, we may want to tweak this,” the speaker said.

And while Schumer insisted that the vote was not a make-or-break moment for the Senate’s bipartisan talks, some progressives don’t see it that way.

“They’re trying to get everybody to coalesce but if that doesn’t happen, we’re going to have to move forward,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

Sarah Ferris contributed.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/20/senate-infrastructure-vote-500282
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett

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Senate Dems consider Medicare age expansion, jeopardizing “soft” infrastructure deal

Senate Democrats are debating lowering the Medicare eligibility age as part of the $3.5-trillion “soft” infrastructure package, at the risk of jeopardizing centrist support for a measure being pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Why it matters: Giving Americans over age 60 access to Medicare would force Democrats to either add an estimated $200 billion to their overall infrastructure price tag or cut other progressive priorities currently in the package.

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• Medicare expansion wasn’t in the initial agreement that Democrats reached — and President Biden endorsed — last week.
• But progressives haven’t given up hope it could be included, in some form, in a final infrastructure package. Critics will argue that expanding Medicare eligibility is a backdoor to government-run health care or “Medicare for All.”
• Lowering the Medicare age would all but guarantee a brutal fight with hospital associations, adding another powerful lobbying group — along with the pharmaceutical industry — in opposition to any deal.

The intrigue: The true cost of Sanders’ ambitious plan to expand the social safety net is difficult to determine, in part, because Senate Democrats haven’t been precise about how long they plan to fund new programs.

• The actual costs could be between $5 trillion and $5.5 trillion over 10 years, if all the changes are made permanent, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a budget watchdog group.
• For example, the cost of the Child Tax Credit, which was included for one year in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill Biden signed into law in March, could cost up to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
• Giving elements different durations would allow Democrats to present an overall price tag that differs, in reality, from the long-term cost of their package.

Between the lines: While Biden didn’t initially run on expanding access to Medicare, he agreed to support lowering the age from 65 to 60 in April 2020, when his campaign worked on a unity platform with Sanders’ team.

• Earlier this year, a group of 150 House Democrats urged the president to include Medicare expansion in his Build Back Better agenda.
• Biden did propose covering dental, vision and hearing costs in his budget, which carried over to the current infrastructure framework. That has an estimated $370 billion price tag and is in the current $3.5 trillion soft infrastructure framework.
• The debate about how to expand Medicare could be punted to the Senate Finance Committee after the full Senate agrees to top-line numbers in a budget resolution.

Be smart: Democrats are bracing for an official “score” from the Congressional Budget Office that’s significantly higher than their advertised price tag — $3.5 trillion.

• The CBO won’t be able to provide accurate numbers, though, until Democrats agree to the specific proposals included in the package.

Source: https://www.axios.com/dems-medicare-expansion-infrastructure-sanders-5a085562-efbc-4f7d-8747-dc77ef6c0ec2.html
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GOP says Schumer vote will fail

Senate Republicans are signaling they’re not going to agree to move forward on a scaled-down bipartisan infrastructure package if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) goes ahead with his plan to force a vote We…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/563728-gop-says-schumer-vote-will-fail
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Democrats look to crush states’ highway habit

House Democrats are trying to use a massive climate and infrastructure bill to change how Americans get around — by breaking states’ decades-old fondness for building highways.

Legislation the House passed this month is the biggest advance yet in Democrats’ efforts to bake climate policies into transportation, addressing the largest single contributor to the United States’ greenhouse gas output. It would also represent an historic shift away from the roads-first approach to federal transportation spending that has reigned since Dwight Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway System.

But the bill is riling up opposition from two potential allies of the Democrats’ big-spending infrastructure initiatives: state transportation departments and the road-building lobby. That creates an awkward dynamic for supporters of the House bill, which faces a perilous path through the evenly divided Senate.

Critics say the five-year, $549 billion bill would represent one-size-fits-all Washington meddling at its worst.

“There are 50 different states with 50 different sets of transportation challenges. What is right for one may not be right for another,” said Dave Bauer, CEO of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, which supports many of the bill’s provisions and principles. “It’s really hard to determine that five years at a time from Washington, D.C.”

The bill’s supporters say the old system is unsustainable.

“We have to begin to look at alternatives,” House Transportation Chair and bill sponsor Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) told POLITICO in the run-up to the bill’s passage in June. “You can’t pave over the whole country.”

The bill, H.R. 3684 (117), would erect new bureaucratic hurdles for states seeking to spend federal money on laying asphalt, while steering them to more climate-friendly options like transit. It also would give cities more power over selecting and funding transportation projects — boosting the leverage of Democratic-led enclaves in red states such as Texas, where Houston is engaged in a high-profile fight with the state’s DOT over a highway expansion local pols don’t want.

The bill is, for now, is separate from a compromise infrastructure bill backed by the Biden administration and key GOP senators, which would provide $579 billion in new spending, as well as a $3.5 trillion go-it-alone proposal that Democrats hope to approve by party-line votes. These chess pieces are separate for now, but portions of all three could end up blended together into whatever Congress ends up enacting.

DeFazio said state DOTs have reflexively built highways instead of looking at other alternatives — a habit that needs to change. As a rare exception, he pointed to Virginia’s efforts to expand passenger rail service to combat perennially snarled traffic on Interstate 95.

“I’m not saying you can’t ever add [highway] capacity. But I’m saying first you have to look at the range of alternatives,” DeFazio said.

A sea of highways

States have tended to use one primary strategy to tackle congestion: adding new highways or expanding existing ones.

From 1993 to 2017, states laid down 30,511 new miles of freeway lanes in the hundred largest urbanized areas — a 42 percent increase in highway capacity. Typically when it comes to federal transportation funding, about 80 percent of federal transportation goes to highways, and 20 percent to transit.

Urban planners and transportation researchers say it’s impossible to pave the way to free-flowing traffic. In fact, they say new lanes often increase congestion, a phenomenon that economists call induced demand, in which creating a greater supply of something just makes people want to use it more. And more traffic brings more pollution. A recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a sustainability research organization, found that Colorado’s plans to add 200 new lane-miles over the next decade would have the same impact on carbon emissions as adding 70,000 cars to the roads.

The Democrats’ bill won’t be able to undo decades of feverish highway building overnight, but its backers say it represents a huge shift in mindset.

The bill, called the INVEST in America Act, would set limits on how states use money from one of the biggest pots of federal highway cash, the National Highway Performance Program, by requiring them to consider whether an “operational improvement or transit project” would be more cost-effective than expanding capacity for single-occupancy vehicles.

As part of that analysis, states would also have to consider the cost to maintain a project that would increase highway capacity, and prove that their modeling of travel demand has a documented record of accuracy.

It would also give more money and power to cities by granting them more authority over project selection and access to funds previously reserved for states. For example, the bill would require states to give local governments more money through an existing block grant fund than is the case at present, and create a new pot of money to go directly to Metropolitan Planning Organizations.

“These changes represent a long-needed shift to ensure that the federal transportation program enhances, rather than undermines, safety and sustainability efforts at the local level,” said Corinne Kisner, executive director of the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

It would also force states to spend a higher proportion of their federal funds on bridges, intended as another way of ensuring they repair existing infrastructure before building anew.

The bill would probably force the greatest changes in red states, which spend proportionally more than blue states do on building new highway capacity, according to data tabulated by the pro-transit group Transportation for America from 2009 to 2014, the most recent available. Mississippi topped the list.

Exceptions exist, though: Republican-led Nebraska spent vastly more on repairs than new highways in those same years. And some Democrat-led states, such as Washington, have often shunned critical highway repairs, contributing to the wear that lawmakers say they want to fix.

States cool to the idea

The trade group that represents state DOTs in Washington responded to the bill with a carefully worded statement that praised the legislation’s policy goals but said the best way to meet them is by giving states more, not less, flexibility.

“We very much appreciate that the House bill addresses so many important priorities —including equity, greenhouse gas reduction, resilience, [electric vehicle] charging, and more,” said the statement from Jim Tymon, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “We firmly believe that if the federal program can provide maximum flexibility rather than prescriptive requirements, states can deliver the policy outcomes envisioned by the House while also advancing each state’s own unique priorities.”

The group Associated General Contractors of America took a harder tone, warning in a letter last week that “restrictions on states to build new highway capacity would have a negative economic effect on the roadway construction industry,” particularly small firms.

But some policy veterans, such as former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Jim Aloisi, the effort doesn’t go far enough.

“Federal largesse has been responsible in large part for the automobility-centric society that we have today that most of us understand is not sustainable,” Aloisi said in an interview. “And what Congress giveth, Congress can reduce or take away. For me, the House bill represents, to be perfectly candid, a modest effort, almost a timid effort in the right direction.”

‘Look, it’s our money’

The House bill’s odds for success become more fraught in the Senate, where lawmakers will have to combine it with either its Senate committee counterpart or with the massive bipartisan infrastructure package that President Joe Biden supports.

Both the Senate bill and the larger infrastructure proposal would pump money into state DOTs with minimal restrictions on what they do with it — largely maintaining a highway-friendly status quo.

Even if the House proposal becomes law, state transportation agencies are probably already figuring out how to continue funding their traditional priorities as if nothing had changed, Aloisi said.

“State DOTs across the board will be very good, and their private allies and supporters, at figuring out how to navigate their way through the language that the House passed,” he said, adding that there are likely already “consultants working overtime.”

But he said changing the states’ ways is a necessary goal and praised Congress for starting to try.

“I think the federal government has every right to say look, it’s our money, and we are now in the process of redirecting and transitioning from a 1950s approach to something that more clearly reflects not just the moment, but the future,” Aloisi said.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/18/democrats-states-highways-transportation-499906
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Senators race Schumer’s clock for passing infrastructure packages

Senators face a massive squeeze for passing the infrastructure packages by the deadlines set by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Why it matters: They return Monday for their final four-week sprint until August recess. The bipartisan group that reached a framework with the White House before the July Fourth recess is still working on its bill, and the reconciliation bill also hasn’t been written.

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• In addition, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) haven’t blinked on the demand from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that they delink the Democrats’ more progressive proposal aiming to tackle “soft” infrastructure.

What we’re hearing: Most Democratic senators in the bipartisan group care far less than leadership about process and sequencing. Once they have the necessary votes, they want to move on the centrist bill.

• But progressives, particularly those in the House, have continued leveling threats they’ll oppose that legislation unless the more ambitious reconciliation package passes with it.
• Meanwhile, it’s still not clear whether McConnell will support the bipartisan package. His comments over the July Fourth recess were intentionally vague, Senate aides say, as he waits to see what the final legislation will look like and how Schumer and Pelosi plan to push it forward.

State of play: In a letter to his caucus last week, Schumer made clear he wants the Senate to consider both packages during the upcoming work period. However, he did not use specific language about tying them together.

• Instead, he relied on technical language to say he wanted to pass “a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions, which is the first step for passing legislation through the reconciliation process.”
• The bipartisan group — now made up of 22 senators with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) signing onto the deal last week — has been in constant touch over recess about minute details of the package, which their staffs are currently drafting.

Be smart: This is just considering the Senate. The House doesn’t return to the Capitol for another week, and its members are scheduled to jet back home for August recess two weeks later.

Source: https://www.axios.com/racing-schumers-clock-d27931aa-8356-496e-8024-3f0bb4475e34.html
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Manchin says he’s on board with Democratic-only infrastructure bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said on Tuesday that he’s supportive of going forward with a larger, Democratic-only infrastructure bill, but that it shouldn’t be linked to a separate bipartisan framework….

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/560686-manchin-says-hes-on-board-with-democratic-only-infrastructure-bill
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Biden’s infrastructure deal gives no clarity on corporate or individual tax rates

President Biden yesterday announced “we have a deal” on an infrastructure bill, while surrounded by a bipartisan group of senators in the White House driveway.

Between the lines: No they don’t. Unless you want to make the word “deal” as squishy as the word “infrastructure” has become.

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Why it matters: There is still no clarity on corporate or individual tax rates, including for income already earned in 2021.

State of play: Yesterday’s agreement primarily focuses on new spending for physical infrastructure, including broadband. The IRS would get extra resources to close the so-called “tax gap,” but there aren’t any rate hikes. Carried interest is not addressed in the information disclosed so far.

Wait, that sounds like a deal: Biden says he wants to dance a legislative two-step. Get this $1.2 trillion infrastructure package through with GOP support, but only if he can also get a separate bill passed via reconciliation. Which may be like saying I came to an agreement with the Lamborghini dealer, so long as I can get one other thing done first.

• Indeed, some Senate Republicans are already saying they won’t be held hostage to such an arrangement, with Lindsay Graham calling it a “deal breaker.”

Timing: Congress is likely to work through the August recess and into the fall, per Axios’ Hans Nichols. And with each passing day, the prospective of retroactive taxes becomes more complicated. Same goes for investors seeking to make decisions related to the prospective infrastructure spend.

The bottom line: Infrastructure Week may never end.

Source: https://www.axios.com/biden-infrastructure-deal-taxes-8184ee2b-509f-4337-9db8-a68b35e21f84.html
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