GOP Senators Say Biden's Infrastructure Deal Back on Track

Two key Republican senators said President Joe Biden's statement that he isn't linking a bipartisan $579 billion infrastructure plan to a larger tax and spending bill will allow negotiations to move ahead.

Senator Rob Portman, a lead infrastructure negotiator for Republicans, said he "was very glad to see the president clarify" remarks he made Friday, which Republicans took as a threat to veto the infrastructure bill by linking it to the bigger legislation that the GOP says it won't support.

"We were all blindsided by the comments the previous day, which were somehow these two bills were connected," Portman said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

"It was a surprise, to say the least, that those two got linked and I'm glad they've now been de-linked and it's very clear that we can go forward with a bipartisan bill that's broadly popular, not just among members of Congress, but the American people," the Ohio Republican said.

The president and a bipartisan group of senators announced Thursday they had reached an agreement on new infrastructure spending. Biden suggested after the deal was struck that his signature on any infrastructure bill was contingent on Congress also passing the much larger tax and social-spending measure that Democrats are preparing.

With the deal hanging in the balance, Biden issued a statement Saturday saying his comments "created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent." Senior Biden aides Steve Ricchetti and Louisa Terrell had spent Friday working to calm skittish Republicans.

Mitt Romney, also among a group of GOP senators who announced the infrastructure deal with Biden at the White House on Thursday, said he was concerned about the president's earlier comments but thinks "the waters have been calmed by what he said on Saturday."

"I do trust the president," Romney, a Utah Republican, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "At the same time I recognize that he and his Democratic colleagues want more than that."

Republicans will support the infrastructure legislation "if it comes to the floor," something that's for Democratic leaders in the U.S. House and Senate to decide, Romney said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the House wouldn't pass the infrastructure plan without the multi-trillion follow-on tax and social spending package. It remains to be seen if this exercise of leverage, absent a Biden veto threat, is enough for progressive Democrats.

Biden Tour

Biden plans to begin traveling the country on Tuesday to promote the bipartisan deal, with his first stop in Wisconsin, a White House official said Saturday. The goal is to build public support not only for the deal but for the social-spending and tax increases Democrats hope to include in the second piece of legislation, which would include elements of his American Families Plan.

"There is still a long way to go," Portman said. "It's impossible to get things done in Washington these days, so it's a minor miracle when you can pull things together."

Biden adviser Cedric Richmond said on CNN he expects Biden will ultimately sign both bills.

Asked if that means Biden won't commit to signing the infrastructure bill if it lands on his desk on its own, Richmond said, "No, I think the important point here is to focus on the statement yesterday when the president's words speak for themselves."

'Two Tracks'

Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat whose vote is critical in a Senate that's divided 50-50, said he expects both pieces of legislation to proceed side-by-side.

"We have two tracks," he said on ABC. "And that's exactly what I believe is going to happen. We've worked on the one track and we are going to work on the second track. There is an awful lot of need."

Manchin said that any Democrats-only bill would have to be fully offset to get his vote. He declined to say how much spending he would be willing to support, saying the amount should be determined by how much revenue can be raised from tax increases on businesses and the wealthy.

"I'd never thought that the net corporate tax should be 21%. I always felt that 25 was very fair and balanced," he said. "I think that capital gains ought to be at 28%, not at 21. There are changes we can make that still keep us competitive."