HOUSE DEMS UNVEIL $547B INFRASTRUCTURE BILL

House Democrats released a plan Friday for spending $547 billion over the next five years on road, mass transit and rail projects, a blueprint for what they want parts of President Joe Biden’s broader infrastructure proposal to look like, Kevin Freking reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The proposal from Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is a policy bill that continues existing programs set to expire and with key pieces of a larger measure President Joe Biden and Republicans are negotiating.

Biden is holding another round of talks Friday with the lead Senate Republican negotiator, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. In his meeting earlier this week with Capito, Biden offered tax concessions aimed at reaching a bipartisan compromise on his overall infrastructure proposal.

The two sides are at odds over how to pay for infrastructure projects, with Republicans ruling out higher corporate taxes and the White House rejecting a GOP proposal to use unspent COVID-19 relief funds.

Biden proposed a 15% minimum tax on corporations — there’s no minimum tax now on corporate profits — and the possibility of additional revenues from increased Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement.

He is seeking roughly $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending, down from an initial pitch of $2.3 trillion. Senate Republicans have countered with only $257 billion in additional spending on infrastructure as part of a $928 billion package.

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