‘We have a deal’

WASHINGTON (AP):

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a hard-earned bipartisan agreement on a pared-down infrastructure plan that would make a start on his top legislative priority and validate his efforts to reach across the political aisle. He openly acknowledged that Democrats will likely have to tackle much of the rest on their own.

The bill’s price tag at $973 billion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, is a scaled-back but still significant piece of Biden’s broader proposals.

It includes more than a half-trillion dollars in new spending and could open the door to the president’s more sweeping $4 trillion proposals later on.

“When we can find common ground, working across party lines, that is what I will seek to do,” said Biden, who deemed the deal “a true bipartisan effort, breaking the ice that too often has kept us frozen in place”.

The president stressed that “neither side got everything they wanted in this deal; that’s what it means to compromise”, and said that other White House priorities would be tackled separately in a congressional budget process known as reconciliation.

He made clear that the two items would be done “in tandem” and that he would not sign the bipartisan deal without the other, bigger piece. Progressive members of Congress declared they would hold to the same approach.

“This reminds me of the days when we used to get an awful lot done up in the United States Congress,” said Biden, a former Delaware senator, putting his hand on the shoulder of a stoic-looking Republican Senator Rob Portman as the president made a surprise appearance with a bipartisan group of senators to announce the deal outside the White House.

The deal was struck after months of partisan rancour that has consumed Washington while Biden has insisted that something could be done despite scepticism from many in his own party. Led by Republican Portman of Ohio and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the group included some of the more independent lawmakers in the Senate, some known for bucking their parties.

“You know there are many who say bipartisanship is dead in Washington,” said Sinema. “We can use bipartisanship to solve these challenges.”

And Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, said, “It sends an important message to the world as well that America can function, can get things done.”

The proposal includes both new and existing spending and highlights the struggle lawmakers faced in coming up with ways to pay for it.

The investments include $109 billion on roads and highways, $15 billion on electric vehicle infrastructure and transit systems and $65 billion towards broadband, among other expenditures on airports, drinking water systems and resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.