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Biden needs Republican Capito to extend counteroffer

Biden wants Republican Capito to increase counteroffer

United States President Joe Biden will address the Middle East on May 20, 2021 at the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC.

Nicholas Comb | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden wants Republicans to increase spending on their infrastructure plan ahead of Friday’s talks that will determine whether Washington can pass bipartisan law to upgrade transportation, broadband and water systems.

During a meeting on Wednesday, Biden told GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito that he wanted the plan to include $ 1 trillion in new spending – or above the baseline set under the existing policy, NBC News reported. While Republicans recently sent Biden a counteroffer totaling $ 928 billion, it contained only about $ 250 billion in new money.

Biden also reiterated that he plans to fund an infrastructure bill by increasing the corporate tax rate, according to NBC. The GOP opposes any change to its 2017 Tax Act, which cut corporate tax from 35% to 21%. On Thursday, the Washington Post and Reuters reported that Biden had offered to keep the corporate tax rate in place and instead rely on a minimum tax of 15% to curb underpayment for profitable American companies.

Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, shared the details of the meeting with five other Republican senators on her infrastructure negotiation team, NBC reported. The GOP expects to send Biden another counter offer on Friday, the day Biden and Capito want to speak again.

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The priorities outlined by Biden on Wednesday highlight the hurdles negotiators face on the way to a bipartisan deal. Despite weeks of maneuvers, the parties did not agree on what should be included in an infrastructure bill or how the plan should be financed.

The White House has signaled that it could go ahead and try to pass laws only with democratic votes if talks don’t progress by next week. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CNBC on Wednesday that the negotiations were “limited in time”.

However, neither Democrats nor Republicans have shown that they want to be the ones to leave the talks.

The GOP’s $ 928 billion plan was roughly half of Biden’s latest $ 1.7 trillion proposal. Democrats want a bill to go beyond conventional notions of infrastructure, but Republicans have opposed including policies on transport, broadband and utilities.

The White House package includes major investments in care for elderly and disabled Americans, homes, schools, electric vehicles, and clean energy. Democrats have emphasized the need to stimulate the economy over the long term by making it easier for workers to find care for dependent family members and by preparing buildings and critical infrastructure for the effects of climate change.

Republicans intend to limit a plan to investments in areas such as roads, bridges, airports, ports, waterways, broadband and water systems.

Agreeing on how to offset expenses could prove just as difficult as deciding what to include on the bill. Republicans have announced that they will not agree to an increase in corporate taxes. Biden wants to raise the rate to at least 25%.

The White House rejects a GOP proposal to reuse the coronavirus aid money passed by the Democrats earlier this year.

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Joe Biden and Shelley Moore Capito to fulfill Friday

Progress in talks with GOP senators

United States President Joe Biden gestures at Senator Shelley Capito (R-WV) during an infrastructure meeting with Republican Senators at the White House in Washington May 13, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Joe Biden and Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito ended a meeting on a possible infrastructure compromise Wednesday and agreed to speak again in two days.

The president and senior GOP negotiator had a “constructive and frank conversation” about a massive proposal to invest in US infrastructure, a White House official said. Biden and the West Virginia senator started the day with differing views on what should go into a bill and how the government should pay for the plan.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Capito “emphasized their desire to work together to reach an infrastructure deal that can pass bipartisan to Congress,” said Capito spokeswoman Kelley Moore. The senator was “encouraged that negotiations continued” and will brief other Republicans before the next discussion with Biden, she added.

Friday’s discussion could be a last-ditch effort to get any closer to an infrastructure deal before the Democrats decide whether to try to pass laws themselves. The Biden administration has signaled that it wants to see progress in talks with Republicans by next week.

“There is a time limit for that … You won’t be playing this back and forth for much longer,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday morning.

“There is definitely a deal,” she said.

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Talks continue a back-and-forth between the White House and the GOP as the parties seek a way forward on a plan to transform US transport, broadband, and utilities. Republicans did not support Biden’s proposals to invest in schools, homes, care facilities and green energy under a bill because they should focus on the infrastructure defined in the past.

The GOP sent Biden a counteroffer for $ 928 billion last week. The president had previously cut his proposal from $ 2.3 trillion to $ 1.7 trillion.

The parties must also resolve a dispute about how the expenses should be offset. Biden plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to at least 25 percent, which was set under the 2017 Republican Tax Act. It also aims to reduce underpayments from both individuals and businesses.

Republicans have announced that they will not reconsider their tax legislation. Instead, they called for the coronavirus aid money approved earlier this year to be reused. The White House has signaled its opposition to the diversion of funds and has questioned how much of the aid will be left.

If they can’t reach an agreement with the Republicans, the Democrats can try to pass an infrastructure bill themselves by balancing the budget. It would require the support of every member of the Democratic Senate faction in an evenly divided chamber.

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Capito, Senate Republicans to ship counteroffer

Capito, Senate Republicans to send counteroffer

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, left, speaks as Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, center, and Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming, listen during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, April 22, 2021.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A group of Senate Republicans plans to send President Joe Biden an infrastructure counteroffer this week as the sides consider whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to craft a bipartisan bill.

The proposal could cost nearly $1 trillion, and Republicans aim to offset the spending without increasing taxes. The group of GOP lawmakers aims to deliver the plan as soon as Thursday morning.

Hopes for an agreement between the parties to revamp U.S. transportation and broadband appeared to dim last week. After the White House cut its infrastructure offer to $1.7 trillion from $2.3 trillion, an aide to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said the plan’s price tag was “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support.”

The Republican group initially put out a $568 billion infrastructure framework last month.

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Democrats will have to decide whether they want to chop up their plan enough to win Republican votes, or try to forge ahead on their own using special budget rules. It is unclear if they would consider passing parts of the proposal with GOP support, then moving to approve other pieces on their own.

The Biden administration has said it wants to see whether it can make progress in bipartisan infrastructure talks before Memorial Day.

Asked after a meeting of the Republicans leading the infrastructure effort if this week’s offer would be the GOP’s last, Capito said she would wait to see how the White House reacted to it. She noted that bipartisan plans that could become part of a broader infrastructure package — including a roughly $300 billion surface transportation bill she helped to craft as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee — are working their way through congressional panels.

“I think that we’ve got good momentum, but we’ll see what [the White House’s] reaction is,” Capito said Tuesday.

The parties need to resolve fundamental issues to come to an accord on infrastructure, one of Biden’s top priorities in the White House. They have disagreed on what should count as infrastructure, as Democrats push for a bill to include policies including care for elderly and disabled Americans.

Biden also wants to pay for the legislation through tax increases on corporations. Republicans have opposed any effort to hike the corporate rate, set at 21% after the 2017 GOP tax cuts.

“We’re not going to have any votes at all to tamper with the 2017 tax bill,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said Tuesday.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., on Tuesday suggested using money already approved by Congress but not yet spent. While he did not specify which funds he thinks lawmakers could repurpose, some Republicans have previously suggested using state and local government aid approved as part of coronavirus relief bills.

After Biden met with six Republican senators earlier this month, the sides expressed hope about striking an infrastructure deal. However, an aide to Capito said the administration and Republicans seemed “further apart” after senators met with Biden’s staff.

Capito said the Republicans would be open to meeting with Biden again.

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