WASHINGTON (AP) – Looking beyond the $ 1.9 trillion COVID relief The bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another legislative priority – a long-sought incentive for the country’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure that could result in Republican resistance at a high price.
Biden and his team began to discuss the possible outlines of an infrastructure package with members of Congress, especially attentive that recent Texas fights with power cuts and water scarcity after a brutal winter storm represents an opportunity for a deal on sustained infrastructure spending.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate advisor, told The Associated Press that the deadly winter storm in Texas should be a “warning sign” for the need for power systems and other infrastructure that are more reliable and resilient.
“The infrastructure was not built to withstand these extreme weather conditions,” said Liz Sherwood-Randall, the president’s internal security adviser. “We know that we cannot just react to extreme weather events. We need to plan for them and prepare for them. “
A White House proposal could come out in March.
“Now is the time to be aggressive,” said transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who knows holes.
In a conference with state and local road officials on Thursday, he referred to the mega-initiative often promised and never reached on roads, bridges and the like of the Trump administration.
“I know you are among those who are working and waiting with more patience, or perhaps with impatience, for the moment when Infrastructure Week will no longer be a sort of Groundhog Day promise – but in fact, something that will provide generational investments, ”he said.
Much of America’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, public drinking water and water systems, dams, airports, mass transit systems and more – needs major restoration after years of underfunding, according to the American Society of Engineers Civilians. In its 2017 Infrastructure Bulletin, gave the national infrastructure a general grade of D +.
Both chambers of Congress will use their unsuccessful efforts to approve infrastructure projects in the last session as a starting point.
Democrats approved a $ 1.5 trillion package in the House last year, but it came to nothing with the Trump administration and the Republican-led Senate. A Senate panel passed stricter bipartisan legislation in 2019 with a focus on reauthorizing federal transportation programs. It also exploded when the United States turned its focus to the elections and COVID-19.
Biden spoke in greater numbers, and some Democrats are now asking him to bypass Republicans in the divided Congress to address a broader range of priorities demanded by interest groups.
During the presidential campaign, Biden promised to deploy $ 2 trillion in infrastructure and clean energy, but the White House does not rule out an even higher price. McCarthy said Biden’s next plan will specifically target job creation, such as investments to boost “workers who have been left behind” by closed coal mines or power plants, as well as communities located close to polluting refineries and other hazards. .
“He is a huge fan of infrastructure investments – very outdated – very late, I must say,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday. “But he also wants to do more in the provision of care, to help our manufacturing sector, to do more to strengthen access to affordable health care. Therefore, the size – the package – its components, the order, which have not yet been determined. “
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, recently told the White House that he is ready to use the budgetary maneuver known as reconciliation to approve a broad economic recovery package with only Democratic votes. This drew harsh warnings from Republicans who have already closed the ranks against the Democrats’ COVID-19 relief bill.
West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the main Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said there was bipartisan support for ambitious infrastructure measures. But this “should not extend to a multi-trillion dollar package that is full of other policies that are ideologically directed at everyone and that tie the hands of our states and our communities,” she said.
Capito will help draft bipartisan legislation on the Senate side.
Congressman Peter DeFazio, chairman of the Chamber’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee, told the AP that he envisages a comprehensive package from the Chamber that will go beyond roads, bridges and public transportation.
He also hopes to have money for water systems, broadband and electricity – dealing with a weak infrastructure that went bare after the paralyzing blackouts in Texas.
He is not yet ready to talk about the overhead costs. DeFazio, D-Ore., Said that it will be up to the Biden administration and the Chamber’s Means and Means Committee to figure out how to pay for it.
DeFazio said the recently announced goal by General Motors to become fully electric by 2035 demonstrates the need for massive spending on charging stations across the country. Biden campaigned on a plan to install 500,000 charging stations by the end of 2030.
“I’m totally willing to work with (the Republicans) if they’re willing to recognize climate change,” said DeFazio, “or if they don’t want to recognize climate change, they can simply recognize that electric semis and electric vehicles are a flood on the horizon. and we have to go ahead of her. “
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., Expressed a similar sentiment, calling for strong action on carbon emissions and vehicle charging stations to help achieve a “complete transition to electricity”. She also wants states to have more federal funding for infrastructure repairs after natural disasters and extreme weather conditions.
At the Senate hearing in which she spoke, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said there is bipartisan support among governors to ease congestion, reduce bureaucracy, leverage private sector investment and ensure that projects can better withstand cyber attacks and natural disasters.
Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said his goal is for his committee to approve an infrastructure project by Memorial Day.
In the House, Representative Sam Graves, the main Republican on the transportation panel, said that Republicans would be open to a bigger package, as long as the national debt did not increase much.
But many lawmakers are opposed to an increase in the federal gas tax, a way to help pay for spending, while groups like the Chamber of Commerce argue against raising corporate taxes during a pandemic.
Cedric Richmond, a White House adviser, a former Louisiana congressman, told state transport officials that the president wants most of the expenses to be paid, rather than added to the debt. In part, this would be reversing some of the Trump administration’s tax cuts.
Ed Mortimer, vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said removing items from last year’s infrastructure account to renovate low-income schools and homes could lower the price, because the COVID relief measure passed by the House already has hundreds of billions of dollars for these purposes.
“Affordable housing, building schools, very worthwhile, but we are not sure if this is the main focus that will make a project into a law,” said Mortimer.
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Yen reported from Austin, Texas. AP writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.