The White House said no deadline has been set for bipartisan talks on a compromise infrastructure package, but House Democrats said they are ready to move ahead without Republicans if a deal can’t be struck by the end of next week.
After a meeting of House Democrats with administration officials including White House counselor Steve Ricchetti Tuesday, House Budget Chair John Yarmuth said the administration was “giving it a week or 10 days and then we move along with reconciliation,” referring to fast-track legislation that doesn’t need GOP support to pass.
Yarmuth’s interpretation was echoed by several other Democrats.
However, a White House spokesman said Ricchetti told them the timeframe was more to assess where negotiations were heading.
“He said that we are certainly going to know where things stand on infrastructure talks generally in the next week to 10 days, and that we can then take stock overall—but did not set a deadline or cutoff,” administration spokesman Andrew Bates said.
A group of five GOP and five Democratic senators, led by Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, has been wrangling in recent days to refine a tentative compromise to move an infrastructure package through Congress using regular rules. After announcing an agreement and top-line spending levels, they have so far failed to release a detailed proposal, with talks continuing on funding mechanisms and how the money is to be allocated among projects.
The timeline is compressing quickly, with the Senate set to leave town on June 24 for nearly three weeks for the Independence Day recess.
The five Republicans from the bipartisan group briefed the full Senate Republican conference Tuesday on their plan in the hopes of attracting at least the five more Republican votes it would need to clear the Senate under the normal legislative process—where 60 total votes are needed.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has not yet weighed in on the substance of the group’s plan, saying Monday he saw a 50-50 chance of a deal.
‘Very Optimistic’
Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a member of the bipartisan group, said he is “very optimistic we’ll get at least 10 Republicans to support the plan.”
He said a text may be released as soon at Wednesday.
GOP senators were generally supportive of the effort, with caveats.
Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who led talks with President Joe Biden on infrastructure before the administration ended them last week without a deal, said she likely would support the bipartisan plan. “But I haven’t seen all the details,” she added.
Texas Senator John Cornyn also said he wanted to see more details.
“But it’s kind of a moot point unless there’s agreement between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “If they actually reach an agreement—if it has some chance of getting to the floor—I’ll be all over it.”