Optimism was high at the height of the summer as the Senate was able to pass a historic $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.
The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) would add $550 billion in new spending over five years for infrastructure, including $110 billion for roads, bridges and major transportation projects, and $25 billion for airports. The bill also featured a $118 billion bailout of the Highway Trust Fund from the Treasury’s general fund.
As the deadline to pass the legislation loomed, the House delayed the vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure proposal as progressives sought an agreement on the larger piece of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
House Democrats failed to reach an agreement that would allow the chamber to approve the $1 trillion infrastructure package and surface transportation reauthorization. As a result, lawmakers had to issue a 30-day extension of the surface highway program as the authority to spend federal highway and public transportation funds was in a temporary lapse.
That extension is set to expire at the end of October and eyes once again turn to lawmakers in Washington.
Reconciliation Complicating IIJA's Chance of Passage
Once touted as a great bipartisan achievement, Congress has complicated the infrastructure bill. Since early on, the bill was linked to a larger $3.5 trillion budget package that Democrats had planned to pass through reconciliation. The "Build Back Better" budget framework has been tied to the bipartisan infrastructure plan since early this year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) insisted that the infrastructure bill would not be voted on until the Senate passed the broader spending plan.
Democrats are still negotiating a compromise between centrists and progressives on the plan that would invest in child care, paid leave, health care, education and the fight against climate change. In the House, Democrats have a slim majority and must keep the party united for passage of the bill. Pelosi cannot lose more than three members of her caucus in the House and in the Senate, all 50 Democrats need to vote yes on the package. Two centrists, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are not on board with the package as it stands.
Republicans oppose the measure unanimously and argue the spending is irresponsible.
Caught in the middle is the infrastructure bill, negotiated by Republican and Democratic senators, pushed hard by the nation’s largest business groups and backed widely in polls by voters of both parties. Linking these spending packages together massively complicates the passage of the IIJA.
Several Republicans who were formerly on board for the infrastructure package are now rethinking their support, saying it's clear the infrastructure bill is linked to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package which they will not support. A vote in support of infrastructure to Republicans means a vote in support of reconciliation.
Support outside of Congress is also waning for the bill. This week, the U.S. Chamber withdrew their support of the bill if it is tied to the reconciliation package.
"We support stand-alone enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and oppose the harmful reconciliation bill," the Chamber said in a statement. "Prior to last Friday, it was clear that Congress could enact the infrastructure bill without enacting the reconciliation bill. Now, Congressional Democrats are linking the two bills together, resulting in holding the infrastructure bill hostage until the reconciliation bill moves forward. We will not back off our opposition to reconciliation because of our support for infrastructure. And we will continue to fight to delink the two bills so that we can enact the long-overdue infrastructure bill and avoid the economy crushing reconciliation bill."
President Joe Biden spoke in Michigan Tuesday on the need for his infrastructure and social spending plans, as negotiations over both bills are underway on Capitol Hill, despite the unresolved Congressional in-fighting.
“These bills are not about left versus right or moderate versus progressive or anything that pits Americans against one another,” Biden said in a speech at International Union of Operating Engineers Local 324 training facility in Howell, MI. “These bills are about competitiveness versus complacency. They’re about opportunity versus decay. They’re about leading the world or continuing to let the world pass us by. To support these investments is to create a rising America. To oppose these investments is to be complicit in America’s decline.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said his party will aim to pass both IIJA and a major reconciliation package by the end of October, CNBC reported. Biden, Schumer and Pelosi all appear to have acknowledged neither bill will pass without the other.
Time is ticking as crucial funding for major transportation programs will expire once again October 31st.
