Lawmakers are heading toward the congressional Memorial Day break with little sign of progress in negotiations over a massive infrastructure package. The White House offered a counterproposal on Friday, but Republicans quickly rejected the offer. Shelley Moore Capito, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the two sides “seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they were after one meeting” with President Joe Biden.
The $1.7 trillion White House proposal reduced spending to the levels suggested by Republicans. Broadband funding was cut to $65 billion from the original $100 billion, matching the GOP offer, Inside Towers reported yesterday. “We believe we can still achieve universal access to affordable high-speed internet at your lower funding level, though it will take longer,” the White House said in a memo.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday the proposal represented an effort to find “common ground.” Capito said Republicans would remain engaged in the talks. “We continue to think there needs to be major progress by Memorial Day.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN on Monday that getting a bill through Congress and to Biden’s desk is a process. “All that is not going to happen by Memorial Day. But we really need to get this done this summer, which is why we continue to want to see, even just in the few days between now and the holiday, some real progress if we’re going to pursue this path,” he said.
“We all know there’s a narrow window here,” a Democratic senator told CNN. “We obviously want to make sure we’ll have the votes with whatever we move forward on, but we also can’t play the game where this drags out for weeks or months.”
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