WASHINGTON (AP) – Beyond the $ 1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another high-profile legislative priority – a long-sought boost for roads, bridges and other infrastructure in the country that could meet Republican resistance at a high price.
Biden and his team have started discussions about the possible outlines of an infrastructure package with members of Congress, particularly aware that Texas’ recent struggles with power outages and water shortages after a brutal winter storm present an opportunity for an agreement on sustained spending on infrastructure.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser, told The Associated Press that the deadly winter storm in Texas should be a “wake-up call” for the need for more reliable energy systems and other infrastructure and resilient.
“The infrastructure is not designed to withstand these extreme weather conditions,” said Liz Sherwood-Randall, a homeland security aide to the president. “We know we can’t just react to extreme weather events. We have 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 Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who knows potholes.
In a conference with state and local highway officials on Thursday, he spoke of the Trump administration’s often-promised and never-realized mega-initiative on roads, bridges and more.
“I know you are among those who are working and waiting most patiently, or maybe impatiently, for the moment when Infrastructure Week is no longer some sort of Groundhog Day promise – but in fact something that generates generational investments, ”he said.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, much of America’s infrastructure – roads, bridges, public drinking water and water systems, dams, airports, transit systems and more – is in need of restoration. major after years of underfunding. In its 2017 infrastructure review, it gave the national infrastructure an overall rating of D +.
Both houses of Congress will use their unsuccessful efforts to move infrastructure bills to the final session as a starting point.
Democrats passed a $ 1.5 trillion package in the House last year, but it came to naught with the Trump administration and the Republican-led Senate. A Senate committee approved narrower bipartisan legislation in 2019 focused on re-authorizing federal transportation programs. It also died out as the United States focused on the elections and COVID-19.
Biden has spoken of bigger numbers, and some Democrats are now urging him to bypass Republicans in the tightly divided Congress to address a wider range of priorities advocated by interest groups.
During the presidential campaign, Biden pledged to deploy $ 2 trillion on infrastructure and clean energy, but the White House has not ruled out an even higher price tag. McCarthy said Biden’s next plan will specifically target job creation, for example with investments to boost “workers who have been left behind” by closed coal mines or power stations, as well as communities located near polluting refineries and other hazards.
“He has long been a fan of – long out of date – infrastructure investments long ago, I should say,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. “But he also wants to do more on the delivery of care, help our manufacturing sector, do more to strengthen access to affordable health care. So the size – the package – the components of it, the order, which has not yet been determined. ”
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, recently told the White House that he was prepared to use the budget maneuver known as reconciliation to adopt a broad program of economic recovery with only Democratic votes. This has prompted stern warnings from Republicans who have already closed ranks against the Democrats’ COVID-19 relief bill.
West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said there was bipartisan support for ambitious infrastructure measures. But that “should not extend to a multibillion dollar package filled with other ideological and universal policies that tie the hands of our states and our communities,” she said.
Capito will help craft bipartisan legislation on the Senate side.
Representative Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House transport and infrastructure committee, told the PA he was planning a comprehensive House package that would go beyond roads, bridges and public transport.
He also expects he will have money for water systems, broadband and the power grid – to fix weak infrastructure exposed after crippling power outages in Texas.
He is not yet ready to talk about the overall costs. DeFazio, D-Ore., Said it will be up to the Biden administration and the House Ways and Means Committee to figure out how to pay him.
DeFazio said General Motors’ recently announced goal of largely switching to electricity by 2035 demonstrated 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 quite willing to work with (the Republicans) if they’re ready to recognize climate change,” DeFazio said, “or if they don’t want to recognize climate change, they can just recognize that semi -Electric trailers and electric vehicles are a flood on the horizon and we must get ahead of it.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., Expressed a similar sentiment, calling for aggressive action on carbon emissions and vehicle charging stations to help achieve a “full transition to electric.” She also wants states to provide more federal grants for repairing infrastructure after natural disasters and extreme weather conditions.
In the Senate hearing where she spoke, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said there was bipartisan support among governors to ease congestion, reduce bureaucracy, leverage private sector investment and ensure that projects can better resist cyberattacks and natural disasters.
Democratic Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said his goal was for his committee to pass an infrastructure bill before Memorial Day.
In the House, Republican Sam Graves, the top Republican on the transport panel, said Republicans would be open to a bigger package as long as it didn’t dramatically increase the national debt.
But many lawmakers oppose an increase in the federal gasoline tax, one way to help pay for expenses, while groups such as the Chamber of Commerce oppose the increase in gasoline taxes. businesses during a pandemic.
White House aide Cedric Richmond, a former congressman from Louisiana, told state transportation officials that the president intended to pay most of the expenses, not add them to the debt. Part of that would be by undoing some of the Trump administration’s tax cuts.
Ed Mortimer, vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said removing articles from last year’s infrastructure bill for school renovations and public housing could reduce the price, because the COVID relief measure passed by the House is already in the hundreds of billions of dollars. dollars for these purposes.
“Affordable housing, building schools, very deserving, but we’re not sure that’s a key goal that is going to get a bill signed,” Mortimer said.
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Yen reported from Austin, Texas. AP author Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
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