Senate Republicans May 27 responded to President Joe Biden's latest infrastructure spending proposal with a $928 billion counteroffer that included $506 billion for roads, bridges and related projects.
The counterproposal focused more on "physical" infrastructure and cut spending on other provisions from Biden's plan that did not readily fit within that parameter, Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a top official on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said during a press conference."We have done something that has stayed true to what our beliefs are... and that is sticking to core physical infrastructure," Capito said. "We have stayed within the boundaries of our original plan, and I think that is what the American people think of when they think of infrastructure."
Capito said Senate Republicans continue to negotiate in good faith with the White House as both sides try to find a deal that will "reach somewhere near $1 trillion over an eight-year period of time that would include our baseline spending."
The $506 billion spending proposal for roads, bridges and other projects falls below Biden's original plan of $621 billion for related transportation infrastructure.
The Republican allotment for transportation infrastructure includes a $91 billion increase over baseline spending for roads and bridges, according to a document released by Capito's office. Biden previously set new funding for such projects at $120 billion.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration noted "several constructive additions" to the Republicans' proposals on roads, bridges and rail spending but remained concerned regarding other aspects of the counteroffer.
"We remain concerned that their plan still provides no substantial new funds for critical job-creating needs, such as fixing our veterans' hospitals, building modern rail systems, repairing our transit systems, removing dangerous lead pipes and powering America's leadership in a job-creating clean energy economy, among other things," Psaki said in a statement.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said the Republican proposal still falls short on "green" infrastructure spending.
"I'm not hearing about the green infrastructure- about the importance of when we make these investments that we're talking about moving our buses to electric, our school buses to electric, our mass transit to electric- so that we're bringing down our carbon footprint," Warren said during an interview on MSNBC.
