The House remains in a committee work week.
The Senate convened at 10:30 a.m. and will resume consideration of S.1260, United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. Republican Senators had raised concerns on Tuesday that the Senate wasn’t allowing enough votes on amendments, and though the chamber locked in six additional votes that night, Senate Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said Republicans want more amendment votes today and Thursday. The Senate will continue working through amendments including ones on IP enforcement, semiconductor supply chain and tougher sanctions on Chinese wireless devices. The Senate expects to likely finish work on the bill this week and will also consider H.R.3233, to establish the National Commission to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol Complex, which previously passed the House.
In hearings of note, at 10 a.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee began a hearing on David Chipman for ATF director. Chipman, President Biden’s lightning-rod nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, appeared in front of the Senate panel to make his case for running the agency during a high-stakes confirmation hearing. The gun lobby, along with its Republican allies in Congress, is mounting a coordinated campaign to sink his nomination, citing his promises to regulate automatic weapons and his support of universal background checks. Mr. Chipman, a two-decade veteran of the A.T.F. has also served as an adviser to major gun control groups.
At 10 a.m. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, began testifying separately before House Appropriations subcommittees and at 2 p.m. SEC Chair Gary Gensler will testify before a House Appropriations subcommittee. Mayorkas testimony.
The Senate EPW Committee began a markup of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021 this morning. The bipartisan legislation will invest in transportation infrastructure to address equity, safety, and climate change. It is the first down payment on the president’s American Jobs Plan and authorizes $303.5 billion over five years to upgrade highways, roads, and bridges.
Republican senators will announce a new counteroffer on infrastructure on Thursday, after the White House last week unveiled a slimmed-down alternative to President Biden’s original massive proposal. The new offer will be close to $1 trillion, which Republicans say is the minimum amount that Mr. Biden has said he will accept for an infrastructure bill, and proposes to be paid for by repurposing unused funds from previously approved coronavirus relief measures. Senator Roger Wicker told reporters that after a meeting between the chief Republican senators negotiating a counteroffer that the bill would be close to the president’s request, and would cover eight years. He also said that it would not affect the 2017 tax cuts bill signed by former President Donald Trump, which lowered the corporate tax rate to 21%. Mr. Biden has proposed paying for a large infrastructure bill by raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, which is unilaterally opposed by Republicans. Meanwhile, GOP Senator Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts) said that a separate bipartisan group of eight senators was also working on an infrastructure proposal.
