White House and Republicans Remain in Different Galaxies on Infrastructure Deal After Latest Offer from Biden Admin

(Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

On Friday, the White House issued a response amid the ongoing negotiations between it and Senate Republicans regarding Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan. Led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Republicans have sought to drastically lower the infrastructure package’s price tag.

But based on a three-page memo from the White House to Capito obtained by CNN Friday, it’s not going well.

In the memo, the White House counteroffers with a figure indicating the administration believes the GOP’s previous offer of a $568 billion plan is a bunch of malarkey. The memo describes the plan as containing between $175 and $225 billion in “new investment, above current levels that Congress has traditionally funded.”

It continued,

We recognize that still leaves us far apart. However, in service of trying to advance these negotiations, the President has asked us to respond with changes to his American Jobs Plan, in the hopes that these changes will spur further bipartisan cooperation and progress.

Specifically these changes would reduce the size of the Jobs Plan proposal for these negotiations by about %550 billion – reducing it from around $2.25 trillion in additional investment to about $1.7 trillion in additional investment. [emphasis, White House’s]

The White House’s counteroffer leaves two sides more than $1 trillion apart.

Capito’s office issued a response shortly thereafter, calling the figure “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support.”

The White House has made overtures to Senate Republicans in the hopes of achieving bipartisan support for an infrastructure bill. Most legislation requires a 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture, but Democrats could use budget reconciliation to pass infrastructure legislation with a simple majority. Currently the senate is deadlocked 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. In the event of a tie, the deciding vote would be cast by Vice President Kamala Harris.

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