Yahoo Finance Capito Sees Good Chance of Making a Deal With Biden on Infrastructure
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the lead Republican negotiator on an infrastructure package, said Wednesday that she sees a greater than 50-50 chance of striking a deal with President Joe Biden, though she acknowledged that the two sides continue to have substantial differences.
“I’m a little bit too much of an optimist at times, but I’m putting it over 50-50,” Capito said in a television interview with Bloomberg's David Westin. “I do think we have gaps here, but we do have the will to want to do this.”
Capito added, however, that a deal will have to come together quickly given that Biden doesn’t want talks to drag on. “I think the next two weeks will probably be the critical time,” she said.
Capito was among six Republican senators who met with Biden administration officials on Tuesday to discuss an infrastructure deal. She indicated that Wednesday that Republicans had upped their initial $568 billion counteroffer, which included existing spending plans, to Biden’s nearly $2.3 trillion proposals, but declined to provide a new figure.
“We’re moving, and obviously we would be moving up because that would be moving towards the president’s numbers, but I don’t want to negotiate in public,” she said.
Capito added that Republicans were willing to look at electric vehicle infrastructure, a priority for Biden, who has proposed $174 billion in spending to boost that market in the U.S., arguing that such investment is necessary to compete with China.
The White House is slated to respond to the latest GOP proposal by the end of the week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has targeted July 4 as an ambitious deadline for House passage, but Capito said she doubted the package could be done by then.
The bottom line: The talks may be progressing but they remain far from agreement. “And they still can’t define infrastructure,” Politico reports, noting that Capito said the administration’s definition “is still a lot broader than ours."
The two sides have yet to reach consensus on a topline spending total, what should be included in any package or how to pay for it.
The White House, meanwhile, faces increased pressure from progressives to end the bipartisan talks and have Democrats press ahead on a broader package without GOP support. “At what point do they seriously come to the table?” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) said, according to Politico. “If they don’t come to the table, it doesn’t mean we don’t serve the meal.”
