President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he supports the framework of a deal presented to him by a bipartisan group of senators to pass a massive infrastructure package.
The White House revealed Biden’s support after the president met with the senators to go over the framework, which includes $973 billion in spending over five years, with $579 billion of that money being used for new projects and initiatives. If continued over eight years, spending would total about $1.2 trillion.
Biden is now calling on Congress to pass the framework and send it to his desk. He also said he wants to pass a budget resolution and legislation that makes his Build Back Better vision a reality.
During a press conference over the framework, Biden said the deal was struck "without raising a cent of taxes below earners below $400,000." He added that there is also no new gas tax or tax on electric vehicles in the plan.
In comments made immediately after his meeting with the senators, Biden said that the deal would mainly consist of physical infrastructure, leaving out some of the family planning considerations that were a part of his proposed package.
"Republicans and this group did not want to go along with many of my family plan issues, the childcare tax credits, the 'human infrastructure,' as I call it," Biden said. "We'll see if that happens in the reconciliation bill in the budget process."
During a press conference Thursday, Biden added that he still expected those provisions to be passed via budget reconciliation, or that the infrastructure package would be in jeopardy.
Biden added that "serious compromises" were made "on both ends."
The bipartisan group of senators also spoke outside the White House after their meeting.
"We've agreed on the price tag, the scope, and how to pay for it," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters that the agreed-to package does not contain any new taxes. In his original plan, Biden proposed an increase to the corporate tax rate to fund more expenses.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, praised bipartisan efforts made by Republicans and Democrats to pass the bill.
"America works, the Senate works," Romney said.
The negotiations over the legislation have been going on for many weeks now. At first, the Biden administration was negotiating with senators directly. But after those talks fell through earlier this month, the president urged Congress members to develop a bipartisan proposal that he hopes will be more responsive to the nation’s needs.
Originally, Biden laid out a vision of spending $2.2 trillion on infrastructure as part of his American Jobs Plan. Republican offers had fallen far short of that, with the highest being less than $1 trillion.
The White House outlined the bipartisan framework as follows:
Total: $579 billion
Transportation: $312 billion
Roads, bridges, major projects: $109 billion
Safety: $11 billion
Public transit: $49 billion
Passenger and Freight Rail: $66 billion
EV infrastructure: $7.5 billion
Electric buses / transit: $7.5 billion
Reconnecting communities: $1 billion
Airports: $25 billion
Ports & Waterways: $16 billion
Infrastructure Financing: $20 billion
Other Infrastructure: $266 billion
Water infrastructure: $55 billion
Broadband infrastructure: $65 billion
Environmental remediation: $21 billion
Power infrastructure incl. grid authority: $73 billion
Western Water Storage: $5 billion
Resilience: $47 billion
*New spending + baseline (over 5 years) = $973 billion
*New spending + baseline (over 8 years) = $1.2 trillion
