Tag: Biden infrastructure plan

Voters Overwhelmingly Support Biden Infrastructure Plan As GOP Plots Obstruction

National Memo logo

A day after Senate Republicans blocked debate on a bipartisan infrastructure deal, a new poll shows about two-thirds of American voters back the framework.

On Thursday, Navigator Research released a survey of 1,000 registered voters, finding 66 percent supported the plan — agreed upon in June by President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators — which would invest $579 billion in transportation, broadband, and water system infrastructure. That framework was backed by 86 percent of Democrats, 59 percent of independents, and a 46 percent plurality of Republicans.

Although 11 Republican senators agreed on the outlines of a deal in June, every single one of them — and the entire GOP caucus — voted on Wednesday to filibuster a motion to start debate on the bill. Because the motion required a three-fifths supermajority vote, the Democratic majority was stymied in its attempt to even take the plan up for consideration. Attempts to salvage an agreement are ongoing. Continue reading.

GOP blocks infrastructure debate as negotiators near deal

The Hill logo

Republicans on Wednesday blocked the Senate from debating a bipartisan infrastructure proposal as negotiators say they are near finalizing their agreement. 

The 49-51 vote fell short of the 60 needed to advance what is effectively stand-in legislation that senators will swap the bipartisan group’s text into once it is finished.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) changed his vote late in a procedural move that allows him to bring it back up for a second vote quickly. Continue reading.

Minnesota mayors urge support of massive infrastructure bill

Star Tribune Banner

Noting the potential payoffs to Minn., they urge the state’s congressional delegation to do same. 

DULUTH – Duluth’s working seaport supports 8,000 jobs and, along with the port in neighboring Superior, Wis., $1.4 billion in economic activity.

That’s a key driver for Duluth Mayor Emily Larson’s support of President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill scheduled for a procedural vote Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, she said at a news conference Monday.

Minnesota members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and two of the state’s business leaders met virtually to urge Minnesota’s congressional delegation to support the bill, focusing heavily on its bipartisan nature. The eight-year plan would invest in public works projects, including roads, bridges, broadband, public transit and passenger rail. Continue reading.

Apples to apples, the Senate GOP infrastructure proposal is smaller than it appears

Washington Post logo

“These figures are what you would consider regular appropriations-plus. So it’s baseline-plus.”

—Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), remarks at a news conference, April 22

The headlines were almost all universally the same — some variation of “GOP Counters Biden With $568 Billion Infrastructure Plan.” Just about every news report suggested that the headline-number offered for the Senate Republican plan was comparable to President Biden’s $2.2 trillion infrastructure plan.

But toward the end of the news conference announcing the Republican counteroffer, Capito made the comment above. She added, “When you hear the $115 billion [Biden is] dedicating to roads, that’s in addition. So we are going to have to square the figures for you better.”

Long ago, The Fact Checker used to be a federal budget reporter. From experience, we learned that the numbers announced at news conferences often needed to be scrubbed carefully. Capito’s reference to “baseline-plus” made our ears perk up a bit. Continue reading.

The Memo: Biden tries to flip the script on taxes

The Hill logo

President Biden’s plan to increase taxes on wealthy Americans is reigniting one of the fiercest divides in politics: How much should the government do, and who should foot the bill?

The president faces a fierce battle to get his infrastructure plan enacted, and he can’t depend on unified backing even from his own party.

Biden this week will propose a massive boost to social infrastructure spending on things such as paid leave, child care and tuition-free community college. Continue reading.

White House sees GOP proposal as legitimate starting point

The Hill logo

The White House on Thursday signaled it would be open to further talks with Republican lawmakers after they proposed a significantly reduced infrastructure plan to counter President Biden‘s $2.2 trillion proposal.

Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the administration believes the $568 billion proposal from Senate Republicans unveiled earlier in the day is a legitimate starting point for ongoing talks, and she said the president would likely host lawmakers at the White House for further discussions in the coming weeks. 

“It’s the beginning of a discussion,” Psaki said. “And the next steps will be conversations at the staff level, conversations between senior members of our administration, members of Congress, appropriate committee staff through the course of next week, and then as I noted the president will invite members down to the White House. But there are a lot of details to be discussed.” Continue reading.

Senate GOP crafts outlines for infrastructure counter proposal

The Hill logo

Senate Republicans on Tuesday discussed the outlines of a scaled-down infrastructure bill they say could pass the Democratic-led Congress with strong bipartisan support. 

The entire Senate GOP conference during its weekly lunch meeting discussed the emerging proposal after getting a briefing from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee. 

Capito is leading negotiations among a smaller group of GOP moderates who met with President Biden earlier this year. The group held a meeting late afternoon Monday to narrow Biden’s proposed $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan into something in the range of $600 billion to $800 billion. Continue reading.

American Jobs Plan Update

American Jobs Plan


The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China.

This week, the White House released both state-by-state and issue based fact sheets that highlight the urgent need in every state across the country for the investments proposed by President Biden in the American Jobs Plan. The fact sheets highlight the number of bridges and miles of road in each state in poor condition, the percentage of households without access to broadband, the billions of dollars required for water infrastructure, among other infrastructure needs.  

Fact Sheets by State can be viewed here.

Voters Like Biden Infrastructure Plan; G.O.P. Still Sees an Opening on Taxes

New York Times logo

A Times poll shows large majorities back spending on roads, ports, broadband and more. But Republicans aim to make corporate tax increases the issue.

President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan has yet to win over a single Republican in Congress, but it is broadly popular with voters nationwide, mirroring the dynamics of the $1.9 trillion economic aid bill that Mr. Biden signed into law last month.

The infrastructure proposal garners support from two in three Americans, and from seven in 10 independent voters, in new polling for The New York Times by the online research firm SurveyMonkey. Three in 10 Republican respondents support the plan, which features spending on roads, water pipes, the electrical grid, care for older and disabled Americans and a range of efforts to shift to low-carbon energy sources.

That support is essentially unchanged from a month ago, when SurveyMonkey polled voter opinions on a hypothetical $2 trillion Biden infrastructure package, despite Republican attacks since the president outlined his American Jobs Plan in Pittsburgh at the end of March. And there is near-unanimous support for the plan from Democrats, whose confidence in the nation’s economic recovery has surged in the first months of Mr. Biden’s administration. Continue reading.

Conservative groups target swing Democrats in fight against infrastructure plan and taxes

Roll Call Logo

Americans for Prosperity travels to Iowa, takes aim at Cindy Axne

Tim Phillips, who runs the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, is going on the road to fight major elements of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan and the potential tax increases to help fund it. 

He’ll be in Iowa on Monday, seeking to put pressure on Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne, who represents the southwest section of the state. 

The stop in Des Moines is a sign of what’s to come across the country as the Biden administration and congressional Democrats craft a $2 trillion infrastructure-jobs-tax package. Americans for Prosperity’s burgeoning campaign is just one slice of a broader, emerging push among conservative policy groups and political networks focused on Democratic lawmakers in swing districts.   Continue reading.