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Bipartisan Senate plan faces opposition from Democrats

Bipartisan Senate plan faces opposition from Democrats

The Democratic and Republican senators who propose an infrastructure deal face the first hurdles to get their $ 1 trillion plan through Congress.

The bipartisan proposal, elaborated by 10 senators, would focus on transportation, broadband and water and not increase taxes to offset costs. A handful of Democrats seeking a broader plan to tackle climate change and social programs, paid for by raising taxes on business or the rich, have opposed the framework.

Senators have to walk a fine line because concessions to win one party jeopardize the support of the other. Despite growing opposition from Liberals, one Republican who worked on the plan is hoping the group will be supported by enough GOP senators to overcome the Democrats’ loss of votes.

“It should definitely be,” Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told CNBC on Tuesday when asked if there would be enough Republican support to pass the plan. “I mean, this is a proposal for infrastructure that Republicans have traditionally supported. It is also a proposal with no increase in income taxes. … I think there will be a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. “

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President Joe Biden’s second major legislative initiative proposed an infrastructure and economic stimulus program worth $ 2.3 trillion. After its talks with Republicans failed due to disagreements about what to include in law and how to pay for it, lawmakers made a last-ditch effort to work out a bipartisan plan.

While the 10 Senators are trying to win support for their proposal, the Democrats have laid the groundwork to pass a bill themselves through a budget reconciliation. During a meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday, White House aide Steve Ricchetti said the government would wait “a week or 10 days” to see if a bipartisan deal was reached, the House Budget Committee chairman said , John Yarmuth, D-Ky. If not, “the Democrats go along with the reconciliation for everything,” said Yarmuth.

A Democratic-only bill seems blocked for the time being, however, as at least one Democrat involved in the talks, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, insists on wanting to pass a bipartisan support plan.

Congress leaders have a math problem. To get through the evenly split Senate in the normal process, the legislation would need the support of all Democratic factions and at least 10 Republicans – or more if Democrats are defective. If the Democrats try to legislate on budget balancing themselves, they cannot lose a single vote.

U.S. Senators Mitt Romney, Kyrsten Sinema, Susan Collins, Joe Manchin and Mark Warner are leaving after they passed away on Aug.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

The bipartisan strategy faces its share of skeptics. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent Vermonter who works with the Democrats, told reporters Monday he would not vote for the plan.

“The bottom line is that there are many needs in this country,” he said. “Now is the time to meet those needs and it has to be paid for in a progressive way as we have massive income and wealth inequality in America.”

At least two other Democrats – Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon – have signaled that they will oppose an infrastructure deal unless more is invested in fighting climate change.

Passing a bill in the Senate will also depend on whether the bipartisan group can win over Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. No senator approved the framework.

McConnell is “open-minded, as he has told the media. … I think the Democrats are talking to Senator Schumer too, and I think he’s open-minded too, ”Portman told CNBC.

While McConnell said he hopes to reach a bipartisan infrastructure deal, he has also vowed to combat Biden’s economic agenda.

Schumer said Monday that “discussions about infrastructure investments are advancing in two ways”. The Democrat added that during the bipartisan talks, the Senate committees are also working on a plan based on Biden’s proposal, “which will be considered even if he does not have bipartisan support”.

He also signaled that he would like greater investments in climate protection.

“And as a reminder of the Senate, a reminder of the Senate: As I said from the start, in order to make progress on infrastructure, we must take courageous measures to protect the climate,” he said.

The challenges are not limited to the Senate. House progressives have begun to oppose a bipartisan plan smaller than the one proposed by Biden. House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-California, also said a provision to index gas taxes to inflation would not receive the blessings of the White House.

“The President of the United States is a big factor in this, and he said he would not support taxes for those earning less than $ 400,000 a year, and that includes increasing gas taxes,” she said on Sunday opposite CNN.

Portman said Tuesday that the bipartisan framework would include a “slight increase” in the tax.

Pelosi did not rule out on Sunday that her group would support a tighter infrastructure package. She said the Democrats would likely need assurances that they will next pass a broader bill that includes more party priorities.

“If [a bipartisan deal] is something to be agreed on, I don’t know how we can sell it to our group unless we know there is more to come, “she said.

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Bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal would value about $1 trillion

Bipartisan Senate infrastructure deal would cost about $1 trillion

(L-R) U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) take a break from a meeting on infrastructure for going to a vote at the U.S. Capitol June 8, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

An infrastructure plan crafted by a group of Senate Democrats and Republicans would cost roughly $1 trillion, a price tag that leaves the senators with work to do to win over members of both parties.

The proposal, which aims to upgrade physical infrastructure such as transportation and water systems, would cost $974 billion over five years or $1.2 trillion over eight years, a source familiar with the plan told CNBC. It would include $579 billion in new spending above the baseline already set by Congress. Biden asked for about $600 billion in new money, according to Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Senators have not announced how they plan to pay for the investments. The proposal “would be fully paid for and not include tax increases,” the 10 lawmakers who reached the deal said in a statement Thursday.

The group framed their proposal as a compromise to upgrade U.S. infrastructure with bipartisan support in Congress. The senators still need to win backing from President Joe Biden and congressional leaders for their plan to gain traction.

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In a statement responding to the plan Thursday night, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said “questions need to be addressed, particularly around the details of both policy and pay fors, among other matters.”

“Senior White House staff and the Jobs Cabinet will work with the Senate group in the days ahead to get answers to those questions, as we also consult with other Members in both the House and the Senate on the path forward,” he said.

The White House let senators know it would not agree to pay for a bill by either indexing the gas tax to inflation or implementing an electric vehicle mileage tax, NBC News reported Thursday. The measures would break Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.

It is also unclear if the spending will be broad enough to win over Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., or progressives who have grown impatient with Biden’s efforts to reach a bipartisan deal. While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he wants to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, he has also signaled he aims to block major pieces of Biden’s economic agenda.

Schumer’s and Pelosi’s offices did not immediately respond to requests to comment. A spokesman for McConnell did not immediately comment.

Democrats are working on more than one front to pass an infrastructure bill and implement the first piece of Biden’s economic recovery agenda. While the White House considers the bipartisan proposal, Democrats have started to set the groundwork to pass pieces of the president’s $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan by other means.

One tool is the five-year, $547 billion surface transportation funding bill advanced by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this week. Democrats could use the measure, which the House could vote on as soon as the end of the month, to approve parts of Biden’s agenda.

Biden has also urged Schumer and Pelosi to move forward with a budget resolution to set up the reconciliation process. By doing so, Democrats could pass an infrastructure bill without Republican support.

The path appears blocked for now. Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat whose vote the party would need to approve legislation in a Senate split 50-50 by party, has stressed he wants to pass a bipartisan bill.

Manchin is one of the 10 negotiators in the Senate group.

It is unclear whether Democratic leaders would accept the bipartisan plan’s lack of spending on so-called human infrastructure, such as Biden’s plan to expand care for elderly and disabled Americans. The party could potentially weave those proposals into a separate bill based around Biden’s American Families Plan. The proposal focuses on child care, education and health care.

Democrats have argued the country needs to improve care programs alongside physical infrastructure because both would help Americans get back to work.

Biden has also called to hike the corporate tax rate to at least 25% to pay for the first piece of his recovery plan. However, Republicans said they would not alter their 2017 tax law, which cut the corporate rate to 21% from 35%.

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Colonial Pipeline paid $5M ransom someday after hack, CEO tells Senate

Colonial Pipeline paid $5M ransom one day after hack, CEO tells Senate

Joseph Blount, JR., President and Chief Executive Officer, Colonial Pipeline is sworn in as he attends a hearing to examine threats to critical infrastructure, focusing on examining the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2021.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Reuters

WASHINGTON — Colonial Pipeline’s CEO told a Senate committee on Tuesday the company paid the $5 million ransom one day after Russian-based cybercriminals hacked its IT network, crippling fuel deliveries up and down the East Coast.

Joseph Blount Jr. told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in prepared remarks that the company learned of the attack shortly before 5 a.m. on May 7, when an employee discovered a ransom note on a system in the IT network.

The note said hackers had “exfiltrated” material from the company’s shared internal drive, and it demanded approximately $5 million in exchange for the files.

The company was attacked by a ransomware program created by DarkSide, a cyber criminal group believed to operate out of Russia.

Blount said that shortly after discovering the ransom note, the employee notified a supervisor and the decision was made to immediately shut down the entire pipeline.

“At approximately 5:55 A.M. employees began the shutdown process,” Blount wrote. “By 6:10 A.M., they confirmed that all 5,500 miles of pipelines had been shut down.”

The decision to shut down the entire pipeline was driven by “the imperative to isolate and contain the attack to help ensure the malware did not spread to the Operational Technology network, which controls our pipeline operations, if it had not already.”

The shutdown caused major disruptions to gas delivery up and down the East Coast, as trucks struggled to restock gas stations, and long lines developed at pumps, especially in the Southeast. Airline operations also were disrupted.

Blount’s testimony revealed just how quickly the company decided to suspend operations, and it provided new details about the first few days after the attack.

The company believes attackers “exploited a legacy virtual private network profile that was not intended to be in use,” Blount told senators.

But he admitted that the account was not protected by multifactor authentication, which is currently the company standard in most of its operations. Blount said the password was complicated, though. “It was not a ‘Colonial 123’-type password.”

Blount also testified about the approximately $5 million in ransom that the company paid to the DarkSide hackers. He revealed that Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom one day after the attack.

“I made the decision that Colonial Pipeline would pay the ransom to have every tool available to us to swiftly get the pipeline back up and running,” Blount said in his opening statement. “It was one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in my life.”

“At the time, I kept this information close hold because we were concerned about operational security and minimizing publicity for the threat actor,” he said.

In response to a question about whether the company paid ransom to an entity under U.S. sanctions, Blount said the company checked the sanctions list maintained by the Office of Foreign Asset Control before making the payment.

The day before Blount testified, U.S. law enforcement officials announced that they were able to recover $2.3 million in bitcoin from the hacker group.

Blount also told senators that the company contacted the FBI within hours of discovering the attack.

This story will be updated throughout the Senate hearing.

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Senate Republicans block invoice to probe Capitol revolt

Senate Republicans block bill to probe Capitol insurrection

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks after the Republican Senate lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington Jan.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a bill that would set up an independent commission to investigate the January 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol as Democrats and the GOP argue over how best to investigate the legislature attack and another attack on the democratic process can be prevented.

With 54 to 35 votes, the measure did not reach the threshold required to overcome a filibuster, as almost all GOP senators were against it. Six Republicans voted to move the proposal forward: Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Rob Portman from Ohio, Mitt Romney from Utah and Ben Sasse from Nebraska. All of these senators, with the exception of Portman, voted in February to hold former President Donald Trump guilty of inciting a riot.

The vote likely undermines the creation of a Democratic panel, and some Republicans have said it is important to understand what led to the violent attempt to disrupt the transfer of power to President Joe Biden. GOP leaders have claimed the commission could redouble existing efforts by the Department of Justice and Congressional committees to investigate the pro-Trump mob attack that resulted in five deaths, including that of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick.

Sicknick’s mother met with a handful of Republican senators Thursday and urged them to support the commission.

Republicans have tried to divert attention from the uprising – to which Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories contributed – as they seek to regain control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Top GOP lawmakers, particularly in the House of Representatives, have set themselves the goal of suppressing criticism of Trump, who remains the Republican Party’s most popular figure.

“Fear of or allegiance to Donald Trump, the Republican minority only prevented the American people from learning the full truth about January 6,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said after the vote.

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The Democratic-owned House of Representatives passed the bipartisan bill earlier this month with 252-175 votes. 35 Republicans supported it, while 175 GOP officials voted against. House Republican leaders pushed for resistance after Rep. John Katko, RN.Y. negotiated the deal with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

The bill failed to win the Republican votes it needed to move forward in the evenly divided Senate after minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Urged his faction to oppose it.

“I will continue to support the real, serious work of our criminal justice system and our own Senate committees,” McConnell said Thursday before the vote. “And I will continue to urge my colleagues to oppose this superfluous shift if the Senate has to vote.”

The bill would set up a 10-person commission to study the factors that led to the uprising. The Democratic and Republican leaders would each appoint half of the members who could not be current government officials.

The subpoenaed panel would report on its investigation by the end of the year.

Schumer urged senators Thursday to back the commission law, saying the country must eradicate belief in Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that widespread fraud led to his defeat in November. He called the lies a “cancer” in the GOP.

“We have to investigate, uncover and report the truth,” he said. “We need to make a trustworthy record of what really happened on January 6th and what happened before that. That is exactly what this commission is supposed to do, non-partisan and right down the middle.”

At least one senior Republican in the Senate has suggested that the panel would detract from the party’s mid-term messages. John Thune, RS.D., said earlier this month, “Anything that makes us rewarm the 2020 elections is, in my opinion, a day where we don’t contrast ourselves with the very radical left-wing Democrats’ agenda can.” “

Senator Joe Manchin, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, has repeatedly called on Republicans to vote in favor of setting up the commission. However, the West Virginia senator said he still would not team up with most of his Democratic counterparts to get rid of the filibuster that would allow the party to pass the bill on its own.

Biden, whose takeover of the presidency the pro-Trump mob sought to disrupt, scoffed Thursday at the prospect of senators voting against the commission’s establishment.

“I can’t imagine anyone voting against setting up a commission for the biggest attack on the Capitol since the Civil War,” he said.

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Schumer says Senate Democrats will work on invoice in June

Schumer says Senate Democrats will work on bill in June

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) touts Senate Democrats legislative accomplishments as he holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 25, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Pool | Reuters

Senate Democrats plan to forge ahead with crafting a massive infrastructure package next month — regardless of whether Republicans get on board — as they push to pass a bill this summer.

Senators will be out of Washington next week for the Memorial Day holiday. When lawmakers return, Democrats aim to write an infrastructure plan that touches on everything from transportation to broadband, utilities and job training.

“As the President continues to discuss infrastructure legislation with Senate Republicans, the committees will hold hearings and continue their work on the Build Back Better agenda — with or without the support of Republican Senators,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Democrats on Friday. “We must pass comprehensive jobs and infrastructure legislation this summer.”

President Joe Biden has worked with Senate Republicans to see if they can strike a bipartisan deal to revamp American infrastructure. After the latest back-and-forth in their talks, the sides appear far from an agreement on what should go into a bill and how the government should pay for it.

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As the White House and Republicans struggle to reach a consensus, some Democrats have called on their party to try to pass a bill without GOP support. Democrats can do so through the budget reconciliation process, which requires a simple majority vote in the evenly split Senate.

Republicans on Thursday sent Biden a $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer. It came in at roughly half of the $1.7 trillion proposal the White House last sent the GOP. The Biden administration first put forward a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.

Responding to the offer, White House press secretary Jen Psaki praised “constructive” additions to road, bridge and rail spending. She said the White House “remains concerned” about Republicans’ proposed spending on modernizing railways and transitioning to clean energy, along with the party’s calls to pay for infrastructure with previously passed coronavirus relief funds.

The White House has said it expects nearly all of the aid money to be spent. Redirecting the funds could jeopardize support for small businesses and hospitals, Psaki said.

Despite the lingering differences, the sides expect to continue talks. Biden could meet again with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the West Virginia Republican leading negotiations with the White House, as soon as next week.

The parties will have to work through two huge disagreements to strike a deal. First, they have disparate visions of what counts as infrastructure.

The White House wants to include programs such as care for elderly and disabled Americans, which it calls vital for putting Americans back to work and boosting the economy. Republicans want to limit the legislation to areas including transportation, broadband and water.

Biden and Republicans could also struggle to find a compromise on how to pay for the infrastructure plan. The president wants to hike the corporate tax rate to at least 25% — and crack down on corporate tax avoidance overseas and individual tax underpayment at home — to offset the spending.

The GOP has said it will not support changes to its 2017 tax cuts as part of an infrastructure bill. The party slashed the corporate rate to 21% from 35%.

It is unclear how much longer talks will go on if Democrats and Republicans cannot strike a deal. On Thursday, Capito said Republicans “continue to negotiate in good faith.”

In his letter, Schumer noted that he was “encouraged” by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee advancing a roughly $300 billion bipartisan surface transportation bill this week.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who previously said he would work to fight Biden’s broader economic agenda, said Thursday that his party would continue to engage with the president.

“We’d like to get an outcome on a significant infrastructure package,” he told CNBC.

Democrats passed Biden’s first big-ticket bill, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan, without a Republican vote in March.

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Senate Poised to Cross $195 Billion Invoice to Bolster Competitiveness With China

Senate Poised to Pass $195 Billion Bill to Bolster Competitiveness With China

WASHINGTON – The Senate was on the verge of passing an expansive bill on Thursday to lead research and development into scientific innovation and fuel the first major government foray into industrial policy in decades to strengthen competitiveness with China.

Driven by growing fears from members of both parties that the United States will lose its lead over China and other authoritarian governments that have invested heavily in developing cutting-edge technologies, the measure would put around $ 195 billion in research in a wide variety of areas Flow sectors, including manufacturing and semiconductor industries.

The widespread support for the move reflected the bipartisan urgency to act amid a pandemic that has exposed Beijing’s bottleneck in critical supply chains, including a global semiconductor shortage that has shut down American auto factories and slowed consumer electronics shipments.

“If we don’t improve our game now, we will fall behind the rest of the world,” said New York Senator Chuck Schumer, majority leader and author of the bill. “That is what this legislation is ultimately about. Raise the ship. We invest in science and technology so that we can over-innovate, over-produce, and compete in the industries of the future, some of which we know and some of which we don’t know. “

The move, the result of a collaboration between Mr. Schumer and Indiana Republican Senator Todd Young, came together when a series of political changes produced a rare moment of consensus on the issue.

Mr Schumer, one of the Democratic Party’s fiercest China hawks in decades, was personally determined to use his new status as majority leader to enforce laws against Beijing. And a growing number of Republicans, led by former President Donald J. Trump, have put aside their party’s ancient orthodoxy against government interference in the economy and embraced the idea of ​​aggressive measures to help American companies compete with an emerging rival.

The legislation would prop up the struggling semiconductor industry by providing emergency funding for a $ 52 billion subsidy program while pouring hundreds of billions more into American scientific research and development pipelines, creating new grants, and agreements between private companies and research universities promotes to promote these breakthroughs in new technology.

However, it was unclear whether the bill – the popularity of which made it a magnet for industry lobbyists and legislators’ priorities for pets – could achieve its ambitious goals. A frenzied round of haggling watered down the legislation and reduced the amount of money for a concentrated center for research and development on new technologies from $ 100 billion to $ 29 billion. Instead, lawmakers have shifted much of that funding to the National Science Foundation’s traditional mission of basic research and laboratories in the Energy Department, rather than the new technology initiative.

The move was also weighed down by parish projects launched to gain broader support, including a new round of funding for NASA with terms likely to benefit Jeff Bezos’ space venture, a ban on the sale of shark fins, and a mandate for Identification of the country of origin for king crabs. At around 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening, the Senate added, with almost no debate, a section that would double the budget of the Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects, a Pentagon research agency.

Hours before the legislation was due to be passed, the Senators were still drafting key components, such as a major trade measure that would re-approve an obsolete provision allowing the temporary suspension of tariffs on certain products imported into the United States. It would also direct the United States sales agent to negotiate forced labor and critical minerals agreements.

Mr Young, who made no secret of his disappointment over some changes to the measure at a recent hearing, said in an interview Thursday that the legislation is still “a significant increase in the funds we will see for applied research. ”

“We will be able to serve as a force multiplier in our efforts to counter China’s evil influence and activities,” he said.

Even so, partisan clashes plagued the legislation at the last minute after the Republicans. Fearing they would not have another chance to pass laws related to China, they urged Democrats to include more of their proposals.

At a closed lunch on Wednesday, Republicans tried to convince their colleagues to delay the passage of the bill. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana argued that the process should be slowed down and nudged Mr. Schumer: The majority leader was moving as fast as if “walking around like a five-year-old in a Batman costume on Halloween,” Mr. Kennedy said by two people familiar with his remarks.

The Democrats had voted on more than a dozen Republican amendments, but a filibuster’s threat to block the legislation sparked one final round of closed-door haggling when leaders put out a 15-minute procedural vote for four hours.

Strong Republican support for the bill – particularly related to the decision to send $ 52 billion to chipmakers and fund a program created by Congress last year – was a paradigm shift in the party as Chinese hawks soar in Congress increasingly federal interventions in support of American manufacturing supported.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio went to the Senate hours before the vote, praising the results “the government and business partnership to resolve an urgent crisis of national concern” had produced during the pandemic, citing the rapid development of vaccines.

“When it comes to research and development technology, this is perhaps the greatest requirement that lies ahead of us,” he said. “The 21st century is determined by this contest between China and the United States, and it is a contest that we simply cannot win if we do not step forward and achieve it.”

Mr Rubio tried on Thursday to add stricter counter-espionage measures to the law, warning that it would be pointless to spend billions of dollars on research “if we allowed the Chinese to steal it”. However, this move did not earn the 60 votes required to be added to the bill.

To connect manufacturing centers and research universities in the United States, the legislation would allocate $ 10 billion to create regional technology centers to strengthen public-private partnerships and support emerging researchers and other workers.

“America’s technology-based economy needs all kinds of skilled workers, and the EFA will make sure we have them,” said the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a group that campaigned for the law, in a statement using the acronym for the Endless Frontier Act.

The bill also contains a foreign policy roadmap for future engagement in China. She called on the Biden government to sanction those responsible for forced labor practices in and around Xinjiang and the Chinese government’s campaign against systematic rape and forced sterilization against the Uighur minorities in the region.

Approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this piece of legislation includes measures to combat intellectual property violations and calls for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Emily Cochrane and Nicholas Fandos report.

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Biden infrastructure plan: Senate Republicans make counteroffer

Biden infrastructure plan: Senate Republicans make counteroffer

Senate Republicans unveiled their $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer to President Joe Biden on Thursday, as the sides see whether they can bridge an ideological gulf to strike a bipartisan deal.

The plan includes:

  • $506 billion for roads, bridges and major infrastructure projects, including $4 billion for electric vehicles
  • $98 billion for public transit
  • $72 billion for water systems
  • $65 billion for broadband
  • $56 billion for airports
  • $46 billion for passenger and freight rail systems
  • $22 billion for ports and waterways
  • $22 billion for water storage
  • $21 billion for safety efforts
  • $20 billion for infrastructure financing

Biden’s latest offer to Republicans came in at $1.7 trillion — $600 billion less than his original plan. He has urged the GOP to put at least $1 trillion into an infrastructure package.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the senators’ offer.

Republicans and the White House have moved closer to agreement on an infrastructure plan but still need to resolve fundamental issues about the scope of a package and how to pay for it, a GOP senator leading the effort said Thursday. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said the sides are “inching closer” in negotiations ahead of Memorial Day, the date by which the White House wanted to see progress in bipartisan talks.

“We’re still talking. I’m optimistic, we still have a big gap,” Capito told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think where we’re really falling short is we can’t seem to get the White House to agree on a definition or a scope of infrastructure that matches where we think it is, and that’s physical, core infrastructure.”

“The White House is still bringing their human infrastructure into this package and that’s just a nonstarter for us,” she continued, referencing Biden’s plans to put money into programs including care for elderly and disabled Americans.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) asks questions during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the FY 2022 budget request for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, May 19, 2021.

Greg Nash | Pool | Reuters

It is unclear if the two parties can overcome broad ideological differences over what constitutes infrastructure, and how to pay for improvements to it, to strike a bipartisan deal. If negotiations do not show promise, Democrats will have to decide whether to try to pass an infrastructure bill on their own using special budget rules.

The process would bring its own headaches, as Senate Democrats would have to both keep all 50 members of their caucus on board and comply with strict rules about what can go into a budget reconciliation bill.

Republicans have said they do not want to raise taxes to cover the costs of improving transportation, broadband and water systems. Biden has called to hike the corporate tax rate from 21% — the level set by the GOP after it cut taxes in 2017 — to at least 25%.

“We can do this without touching … those tax cuts,” Capito told CNBC.

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She mentioned that lawmakers could redirect unused coronavirus relief funds to state and local governments to infrastructure, or implement user fees on transportation like electric vehicles. Those Republican solutions could put Biden in a bind.

The president has promised not to raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 per year. User fees or an increase to the gas tax would put an extra burden on many Americans whose incomes falls under the threshold.

Capito said she sees the potential for bipartisan agreement on transportation spending. She noted that the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee — where she sits as ranking member — advanced a roughly $300 billion surface transportation bill that she thinks could guide a broader infrastructure deal.

In trimming his original $2.3 trillion plan, Biden cut out funding for research and development and supply chain enhancements. He also reduced proposed spending on broadband, roads and bridges.

Biden did not cut down the proposed $400 billion for home-based health care. Republicans have criticized that spending as part of an infrastructure package.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

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Biden’s Decide to Lead ATF Seems Earlier than Senate Panel

Biden's Pick to Lead ATF Appears Before Senate Panel

David Chipman, President Biden’s election to head the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau, faced waning criticism from Republicans during his confirmation hearing Wednesday of his history of scathing comments on gun ownership.

Mr. Chipman, a two-decade veteran of the ATF who advised gun control groups, was selected in part because of his willingness to face an industry that has handcuffed the agency that enforces gun laws.

But his comments – including an interview last year in which he jokingly compared frantic gun purchases during the coronavirus pandemic to a zombie apocalypse – have been the subject of repeated questions from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Many see it as a dedicated gun control advocate like David Chipman, who is in charge of ATF, a tobacco manager who is in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, or Antifa, who is in charge of the Portland Police Department “said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the senior committee member.

As the hearing began, news reports of a fatal shooting in San Jose, California began pinging on lawmakers’ phones. “I’m not lost that there is another mass shooting,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat.

The National Rifle Association launched a coordinated campaign against Mr. Chipman’s nomination, citing his promises to regulate automatic weapons and his support for universal background checks.

The organization has effectively exercised a veto power over the appointment of stable leadership at the ATF and blocked several potential directors, including a conservative police union official who was tapped by President Donald J. Trump. The gun lobby has also waged a decades-long campaign to fight the ATF, fighting against fund increases and efforts to modernize their paper-based firearms tracking system.

Republicans said Mr. Chipman’s penchant for provocation made him an unacceptable choice in hopes of sinking his nomination, just as a story of inflammatory Twitter posts doomed Neera Tanden’s nomination, Mr. Biden’s first choice, to be his Head of household office.

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, barbecued Mr. Chipman for jokingly said in an interview last year that some first-time gun buyers were “preparing for end-time scenarios and zombie apocalypses.”

Mr Chipman, who appeared to be trying to avoid back and forth with Republicans, said the statements were “self-deprecating”. He also diverted questions about his advocacy of progressive politics by saying he considers himself a “policeman”.

Minutes later, after Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz criticized him for calling for restrictions on AR-15-style rifles, Mr. Chipman thanked the Senator for telling me “me a Dr. Pepper offered ”.

Mr Biden elected Mr Chipman after a lobbying campaign by gun safety organizations led by former representative Gabrielle Giffords. For the past several years, Mr. Chipman has worked with groups led by Ms. Giffords and Michael R. Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City, who also urged his selection.

The White House was initially reluctant to nominate anyone who would provoke such fierce opposition, but Mr Biden decided he had to take a risk after the mass murders in Atlanta and Boulder, White House officials said.

White House officials believe Mr Chipman has just enough votes – they estimate 50-52 – to overcome near-unanimous Republican opposition.

Two critical Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin III from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona, have told Democratic leaders that if the hearings go well, they will likely vote for him. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins from Maine and Patrick J. Toomey from Pennsylvania, haven’t ruled out their support.

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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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Home Backs Jan. 6 Fee, however Senate Path Dims

House Backs Jan. 6 Commission, but Senate Path Dims

WASHINGTON – A sharply divided house voted on Wednesday to establish an independent commission to investigate the January 6th Capitol attack to overcome Republican opposition determined to halt high-profile coverage of the deadly pro-Trump uprising.

But even as the bill passed the House, top Republicans shut down arms to freak it in the Senate and protect former President Donald J. Trump and her party from re-examining their role in that day’s events.

The 252-175 votes in the House of Representatives, with four-fifths of Republicans opposed, indicated the difficult road ahead for the Senate proposal. Thirty-five Republicans resisted their leadership to support the bill.

The vote came hours after Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, declared his opposition to the plan. Mr McConnell had only said the day before that he was open to voting in favor and that he previously had both Mr Trump’s role in sparking the attack and some Republicans’ efforts on Jan. 6 to block the certification of, loudly condemns the 2020 election results.

His reversal reflected broader efforts by the party to politically move beyond the attack on the Capitol – or to recast the riots as a largely peaceful protest – under pressure from Mr Trump and over concerns about the issue they were facing in the mid-term elections Tracked in 2022.

Proponents hailed the move to establish the commission as an ethical and practical imperative to fully understand the most violent attack on Congress in two centuries, and Mr Trump’s election lie that fueled it. Following the example of the panel that investigated the September 11, 2001 attacks, the 10-member commission would conduct an investigation from the convention halls and deliver results by December 31.

“I was on the floor of the Capitol with the spokesman in the chair and a howling mob attacked the United States Capitol,” said representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat and chair of a committee that had already investigated the attack lively roll call before voting. She reminded colleagues of the “knocking on doors” and the “mutilated police officers”.

“We have to get to the bottom of this, not only to understand what happened before the sixth, but how we can prevent it from happening again – how we can protect the world’s oldest democracy in the future,” said Ms Lofgren.

However, the prospects for Senate passage deteriorated significantly after Mr. McConnell, along with his counterpart, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, and Mr. Trump considered the Democratic and moderate Republican proposal of the House to be overly partisan and a duplicate of the ongoing law enforcement action Justice Department and close Congressional investigations.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to oppose the House Democrats’ weird and unbalanced proposal for another commission to investigate the January 6th,” said McConnell in the Senate.

Many ordinary Republican senators who had flirted with support for the commission idea also quickly agreed, arguing that the proposal wasn’t really bipartisan and that the investigation would take too long and learn too little. Their positions made it less likely that Democrats could win the 10 Republican votes they would need to hit the 60-vote threshold required to pass the bill in the evenly-divided Senate.

Republican leaders who witnessed the January 6 events and fled for their lives when an armed mob overtook their jobs had briefly considered supporting the commission out of fairness. The 9/11 Commission was adopted almost unanimously two decades ago, and its work was widely publicized.

Their recent opposition pointed to a colder political calculation propelling the Republican approach through 2022: Better to avoid a potentially uncontrollable reckoning centered on Mr Trump and the false claims of electoral fraud that he continues to proclaim.

“I want our medium-term message to address the issues that the American people are dealing with – jobs and wages and the economy, national security, safe roads, strong borders and such issues,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, Mr. McConnell’s No. 2. “Don’t Religious the 2020 Elections.”

After a bipartisan negotiation approved by Mr McCarthy, the outcome was disheartening to those who believed that Mr Trump’s resignation from the public scene and the reality of an assault on the seat of government could help ease strained Republican relations and democrats.

The two parties are expected to stall again on Thursday if Democrats over a 1, four months after the deaths of at least five people in connection with the invasion, which injured nearly 140 people and injured dozen of people. Vote $ 9 billion spending plan to strengthen Capitol defenses Millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol complex.

Democrats were furious. They had made several concessions to Mr McCarthy, believing that he would support the deal only to see he slammed it publicly for not investigating unrelated “political violence” on the left. Some Democrats said the episode only pointed out to them that there was no point in negotiating with Republicans over one of the big issues dividing the parties, including President Biden’s infrastructure proposal.

In the House of Representatives, Democratic leaders threatened to launch a more partisan investigation on January 6 through existing congressional committees or through the creation of a new selection committee if the commission’s proposal dies.

Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans speculated that Mr McCarthy’s reluctance may have been driven in part by efforts to prevent harmful information about his own conversations with Mr Trump from coming to light around Jan. 6, at a time when he tries to help his party take back the house and become a spokesman.

“You have to ask them what they are afraid of,” California spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “But it sounds like they are afraid of the truth, and that is extremely unfortunate.”

New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and majority leader, pledged to hold a Senate vote in the coming weeks to force Republicans to take a public position, despite not offering a specific date.

“The American people will see for themselves whether our Republican friends are on the side of the truth or on the side of Donald Trump’s great lie,” he said.

During the floor of the House debate, the Republicans who backed the panel tried repeatedly to make it a replay of the 9/11 commission whose leaders endorsed the new effort. Although the impeachment proceedings against the Senate and a handful of congressional committees have already produced a detailed report on that day, important questions remain, particularly about Mr Trump’s conduct and the roots of intelligence and security deficiencies.

“Make no mistake, it’s about the facts, it’s not partisan politics,” said Republican John Katko, Republican of New York, who was negotiating legislation to create the commission with Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi.

“Jan. 6 will haunt this institution for a long time, ”said Michigan representative Fred Upton, another Republican who voted to set up the commission. “Five months later, we still have no answers to the basic questions: who knew what, when, and what did they do about it?”

Among the Republicans who voted for the commission was a well-known group of moderate and staunch critics of Mr Trump, many of whom either voted to charge him with the January 6 attack or otherwise condemned his actions. Most notable was the Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, who was fired from the party leadership last week for refusing to stop criticizing Mr Trump for his attempts to overthrow the election.

The supporters also counted a large number of established Republicans from conservative districts who, despite the politics, were shaken by the attack and want a thorough investigation.

Among the votes against were Republican Greg Pence, Republican of Indiana, and the brother of former Vice President Mike Pence, whose opposition to the freeze on the confirmation of the election results made him one of the main targets of pro-Trump rioters, of whom some erected a gallows outside the Capitol. In a statement, Representative Pence said Ms. Pelosi had attempted to appoint herself a “hanging judge” in order to carry out a “pretended political execution of Donald Trump”.

The scale of the Republican spills in Wednesday’s vote embarrassed Mr McCarthy at a time when he was vowing to unite the party and few Republicans were ready to defend their opposition during the debate. Mr Katko’s allies were particularly outraged that the minority leader stood in for him to make a deal and then released him when he did.

Democrats attempted to further embarrass Republicans by distributing an unusual letter from Capitol police officers expressing “deep disappointment” with Mr. McCarthy and Mr. McConnell.

“It is incomprehensible to believe that anyone could suggest that we move forward and get over it,” the officials wrote in the unsigned letter.

In the Senate, a small group of moderate Republicans suggested Wednesday that they would continue to be interested in running a commission, albeit with changes to staff appointments. But Mr. McConnell left very little chance that his executive team could come to yes.

Mr. McConnell had emerged as one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Mr. Trump on Jan. 6. He blamed him for the loss of the House, Senate, and White House, and inspired the deadliest attack on Congress in 200 years. But in the months since Mr. Trump regained control of the party, Mr. McConnell has been increasingly reluctant to stir his anger.

On Wednesday, he insisted that he believed he could get to the bottom of what had happened, but argued that the ongoing investigation by the Justice Department and non-partisan Senate committees was sufficient. In reality, the scope of this work is likely to be much narrower than what a commission could investigate.

“The facts have come out,” said McConnell, “and they will come out.”