DEMOCRATS’ TWO-STEP INFRA PLAN DRAWS USUAL REBUKE FROM GOP

Hours after US President Joe Biden declared "we have a deal" to renew the nation's infrastructure, the Senate's top Republican lashed out at plans to follow the $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill with another measure addressing what Democrats call "human infrastructure."

Biden and top congressional Democrats - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer - had long signaled their plan to link the bipartisan deal with another measure including spending on home health care and child care in an infrastructure bill, Richard Cowan and David Morgan reported for Reuters.

The Associated Press (AP) also reported the next problem is whether the House of Representatives will approve the deal or not, the same issue raised by the New York Times.

The second measure would be passed through a Senate maneuver called reconciliation, which would allow it to take effect without Republican votes.

"I expect that in the coming months this summer, before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this (bipartisan) bill - the infrastructure bill - as well as voted on the budget resolution," Biden told reporters at the White House. "But if only one comes to me, I'm not signing it. It's in tandem."

That drew a harsh response from Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. "Less than two hours after publicly commending our colleagues and actually endorsing the bipartisan agreement, the President took the extraordinary step of threatening to veto it," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "It almost makes your head spin."

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