Republicans at odds over infrastructure bill as vote nears

WASHINGTON Business groups and some Senate Republicans working with Republican leaders in the House have mounted a comprehensive drive to secure GOP votes for a bipartisan infrastructure bill ahead of a final vote on Thursday.

While the measure is the product of a compromise between moderates in both parties, House Republican leaders are relying on their members to reject the $1 trillion infrastructure bill by discrediting its contents and arguing that it is only the way will pave the way for Democrats to do their very best. bigger bill for climate change and social policy.

Their opposition has mounted pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has the more progressive members of her Democratic caucus threatening to withhold support for the infrastructure package until Congress acts on that broader bill. If Republicans unite in opposition, Ms. Pelosi can afford to lose just three Democrats on the bill.

But some Republican senators who helped write the bill, along with influential business groups that support it, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, have launched a counter-effort to try to persuade House Republicans to support the legislation.

It’s a good bill; it’s right there for the country, so I encourage Republicans to support it, said Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman and one of the bill negotiators, who said he worked hard on the phones. There will be some who have told me they will, but they are under a lot of pressure.

How the conflicting print campaigns play out could determine the fate of the infrastructure bill. On Tuesday, liberal Democrats charged Ms Pelosi with treason for giving up on her promise that the House would pass the infrastructure bill only after the Senate secured approval of the larger measure.

As Democratic leaders work hard to get as many of those liberal votes as possible, they know defectors will have to be caught up by House Republicans.

Id says the bill is likely to pass, but it will be a beeper, Neil Bradley, an executive vice president and the chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who once worked for the Republican leadership of the House, said Tuesday. .

Rep. Steve Scalise, Republican from Louisiana, who heads his party’s vote suppressors in the House, keeps a close eye on which Republicans plan to vote for the infrastructure bill.

We were working to keep that number as low as possible, he said.

A few House Republicans who are members of the bipartisan Troubleshooters Caucus have announced their support for the measure, including representatives Tom Reed of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Don Bacon of Nebraska. On Monday, Alaska Representative Don Young, the longest-serving member of the House, announced his support with: a passionate speech at the House of Representatives.

Moderate Democrats say others may follow as many as 20 Republican votes if Ms. Pelosi can win enough Liberals to keep it close. But with a vote on Thursday, time is running out.

Representative Peter Meijer, a freshman Republican from Michigan, said he’d heard of Republicans from both sides, but when he asked whether it would be better for both bills to pass or if both should fail, the consensus was that they’d better both pass. to fail. President Biden saddled up infrastructure with this $3.5 trillion albatross around his neck was a poison pill for those of us who wanted a two-pronged solution, he said.

The infrastructure bill is an unusual phenomenon in a highly polarized congress: a truly bipartisan and important bill, hammered by Democrats and Republicans before it passed the Senate last month by 69 votes, 19 of which were Republican, including that of minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell. from Kentucky.

With $550 billion in new federal spending, the measure would bring in $65 billion to expand high-speed Internet access; $110 billion for roads, bridges and other projects; $25 billion for airports; and the most funding for Amtrak since the passenger train’s inception in 1971. It would also revamp and revamp existing infrastructure and transportation programs that expire on Friday.

But because House Democratic leaders have at least verbally packaged it with a larger $3.5 trillion climate change and social policy bill, it has become entangled in the politics of that measure and wider Republican efforts to push the president’s agenda. to thwart Bidens.

Mr Scalise put it in the loftiest of terms on Tuesday: this week there was to be an epic battle between free market capitalism and big government socialism. That’s what’s at stake.

With Democrats arguing publicly over Bidens’ agenda, senior Republicans have little interest in their regular bail getting Ms. Pelosi out of her predicament.

The legislative crisis ahead is one of her own creations that she needs progressives to help her out, said Missouri Representative Jason Smith, the leading Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Supporters of the infrastructure law try to stay clear about the merits of the bills, not broader politics.

The real people have rhetorically linked the two, but they aren’t, Mr. Bradley. If that vote passes, the bill will go to the president for his signature.

And they argue that House Republicans are making the wrong political calculation about the infrastructure measure. GOP leaders have warned that the bill is a Trojan horse whose approval would only increase the chances Democrats will approve the pricier plan Mr Biden calls his Build Back Better agenda, which is packed with extensions of social safety net programs, initiatives to fight climate change and tax increases for corporations and the wealthy.

I just don’t think it’s right, said Mr. Portman.

Instead, some proponents of the infrastructure measure see its passage as a possible setback to the bigger plan. They argue that the enactment of the infrastructure bill could strip progressives of their influence to dictate the terms of the more ambitious and expensive part of their agenda.

Joshua Bolten, former White House chief of staff to George W. Bush and chairman of the Business Roundtable, said the top executives’ organization pushed for the passage of the bills, ran radio and social media ads in Republican districts and urged meetings with legislators.

This is a really good bill. It is urgently needed. It will have a dramatic effect on the productivity of the US economy. The investment has been really well spent, he said Tuesday. Pass it on now and fight over the other bill later.

Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney said he lobbied every member of his state delegation to support the measure.

I can’t predict where they will end up, but I certainly encourage people to consider the bill’s merits rather than worrying about what outside observers have to say, he said.

In this case, House Republican leaders appear to be heeding pressure from conservative groups, who have despised the infrastructure bill as inflated with spending well beyond its stated goal. And they predict that moderate Democrats who have pushed for its adoption will be enraged enough by its demise that they will retaliate by tearing down the social policy law.

This is a desperate administration looking for a win to distract Americans from the Biden-induced crises both at home and abroad while opening the floodgates on trillions more spending, said Republican Representative Beth Van Duyne from Texas.

The supporters of the larger bill see an alternative political cause and effect. The most liberal members of the House have long warned that once the infrastructure bill is passed, moderate to conservative Democrats will break away from the bigger bill, having already secured their priority.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, another Republican proponent of the infrastructure plan, said the bill’s significance went beyond roads, bridges and railroads.

It was not just the benefits of the policies that were introduced and the necessary infrastructure built; it’s also the message that’s being sent that at a time when so much is dysfunctional in Congress, you can set up two-pronged initiatives that will last, she said, adding: if it failed, I think that would be a pretty hefty message in and of itself. .

Emily Cochrane reporting contributed.