Republicans Balk at Infrastructure Deadline
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Senate Republicans in bipartisan talks on a $579 billion infrastructure deal are warning Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that if he goes through with a July 21 vote to start debate on the plan he won’t have their support and his attempt to enforce a deadline will fail.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said there is “no way” the group of 22 Republicans and Democrats can finish pulling together a bill by July 21 with many issues still outstanding, including how to pay for it.
Collins and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) are among Republicans urging Schumer to delay the procedural vote on a measure championed by President Joe Biden.
“There’s no point in having it,” she said.
“We need to see the bill before voting to go to it,” Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said. “I think that’s pretty easily understood “
Schumer has announced plans to set up the vote on July 19 in a drive to nudge negotiators along, saying the Senate could move ahead with what would be a shell for the eventual legislation while negotiators have a few more days to finish.
Schumer speaks at a past press conference. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
But moving ahead requires 60 votes and Schumer would need at least 10 Republicans to agree. Those would likely come from among the 11 Republicans involved in the negotiations and several of them are indicating they won’t vote to proceed until the legislation is ready.
Losing the vote on July 21 would be a significant setback for Schumer, although under Senate procedures he could attempt it again at a later date. It could short-circuit Schumer’s timeline for action on infrastructure this month and hamper the effort to keep Republicans on board.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on July 19 said a deal could be reached by July 21. “Two days is a lifetime in Washington,” she told reporters.
The bipartisan group of 22 senators negotiating the infrastructure package has struggled for weeks to hammer out details that can be turned into legislative text, but still haven’t settled on how to pay for their plan as negotiations with the White House continued through the weekend.
Portman, one of the Republicans leading the effort, on July 18 said the group dropped plans to use stricter tax code enforcement as a way to offset $100 billion of the cost of the package, a move that complicates the delicate negotiations.
“It’s more important to get it right than to meet an arbitrary deadline,” Portman said on CNN. “We should bring the legislation forward when it’s ready.”
Senators in the group are considering reversing a Trump-era policy that sought to eliminate rebates drug companies give benefit managers in Medicare Part D. The Trump administration proposed the rule to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients but reversing it could save Medicare substantial money. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the rule would increase federal Medicare spending by about $177 billion from 2020 through 2029.
Schumer this week also has a second target — agreement among Democrats on a budget framework for the biggest expansion of social spending in decades — and it could prove just as challenging. Details of that package also haven’t been spelled out.
Two Democratic senators from Republican-dominated states, Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, want more details on the specifics of the $3.5 trillion plan, including how it would be paid for, before committing. Progressive Democrats in the House and Senate, meanwhile, are threatening to withhold support for an infrastructure package until it’s clear that action is being taken on the budget framework.
— With assistance from Billy House and Steven T. Dennis.
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