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Senate Republicans rejected President Joe Biden's $1.7 trillion counter offer in infrastructure bill on Friday, escalating tensions in negotiations to reach a compromise agreement.
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Key progressive initiatives stall in Congress as some on the left urge Biden to go bold, and go alone
Updated 12:04 AM ET, Sat May 22, 2021 (CNN)As President Joe Biden pursues his quest for a bipartisan legislative victory and Congress winds down before the Memorial Day holiday, some of the top legislative priorities for progressives are stalling in Washington as Democrats hopes for big bold changes collide with the limits of what Biden can achieve under a deeply divided government.
The gulf between progressive ambition and the legislative reality means there is all-but-certain friction ahead between Biden and the restive liberal wing of his party, which united behind him after he defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primary and marshaled their forces to help the party flip two US Senate seats in Georgia, giving Democrats control of that chamber.
iStock/OlegAlbinsky(WASHINGTON) Bipartisan negotiations on infrastructure hit a new snag Friday after Republicans flatly rejected a counterproposal on the multi-trillion dollar bill advanced by the White House. The White House's $1.7 trillion dollar offer on Friday was a pared down version of President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan, initially valued at $2.2 trillion. Within moments of receiving the deal, Republican aides rejected it, telling ABC News that the price tag is too high for the GOP to stomach. A spokesperson for West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who is leading the Republican effort to strike a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure, said in a statement Friday that the Biden package is "well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support." "There continue to be vast differences between the White House and Senate Republicans when it comes to the definition of infrastructure, the magnitude of proposed spending and how to pa
President Biden has offered to lower his infrastructure and jobs spending proposal by $550 billion.
Biden has offered to slash his initial proposal by $550 billion. But the lead Senate Republican negotiator says it s still well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support.
Updated May 21, 2021 at 5:05 PM ET
In what appears to be a mostly symbolic step toward finding common ground with Senate Republicans, the Biden administration has lowered its spending proposal on its infrastructure and jobs proposal, from more than $2 trillion to $1.7 trillion.
The latest figure announced by White House press secretary Jen Psaki at Friday s press briefing, and detailed in a memo to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia that NPR obtained is still more than $1 trillion higher than the offer Capito and other Republicans had initially made to the White House.