The House remains in a committee work week. The Senate met at 10:00 a.m. and resumed consideration of Zahid Quraishi to be a District Court judge for New Jersey.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee began marking up the INVEST in America Act, the surface transportation bill, at 10 a.m. The INVEST in America Act puts a core piece of President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan into legislative text and the bill includes strong Buy America provisions and labor protections, ensuring the work done is fueled by American workers, manufacturing, and ingenuity, with targeted investments in rural and underserved communities.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) has set a goal of moving a major infrastructure bill through the Senate by July 1st. To meet that timeline, the next several weeks could see the development of a budget resolution with instructions to Senate committees to begin drafting the reconciliation package. This comes as President Biden’s infrastructure talks with Republicans collapsed Tuesday, both the White House and lead Senate negotiator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) said. The end of the talks will increase pressure on Democrats to pass a sweeping package using the reconciliation process that doesn’t require any Republican votes in the Senate. Weeks of negotiations failed to bring the White House and Republicans close to a deal and they remained far apart on a total price tag for a bill, which types of projects should be included and whether to raise any new taxes. Senate Majority Leader Schumer said that as negotiations “seem to be running into a brick wall,” Democrats are “pursuing a two-path proposal” that includes focusing on new talks among a group of senators from both parties and at the same time pursuing the pursuit of reconciliation. Other senators working on the alternative plan include Senators Rob Portman, (R-Ohio), and Mitt Romney, (R-Utah) and well as West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. The group aims to win over as many as 20 centrist senators to back their plan once it is finalized. While it is unclear what that final plan would contain, it could cost just under $900 billion, according to reports. The price tag would be roughly half of Biden’s last $1.7 trillion offer to the GOP.
President Biden departed for Britain this morning on his first trip abroad since taking office, an eight-day mission to rebuild trans-Atlantic ties strained during the Trump era and to reframe relations with Russia. The trip represents a test of the president’s ability to manage and repair relationships with major allies who grew disenchanted with then-President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs and withdrawal from international treaties. Biden will spend the next week making the case that America is back and ready to lead the West anew in what he calls an existential collision between democracies and autocracies. On the agenda are meetings in Britain with leaders of the Group of 7 nations, followed by visits to NATO and the European Union where the agenda is expected to be dominated by Russia, China and the perennial issue of getting NATO allies to contribute more to the common defense On Mr. Biden’s final day, in Geneva, he will hold his first meeting as president with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Biden will also have a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday in Cornwall, a chance to renew the U.S.-British “special relationship” after Britain’s Brexit break from the European Union. Biden and the first lady will also visit Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle.
Adam S. Olsen, Washington, D.C.
