A group of Senate Republicans lead by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) unveiled a $568B infrastructure proposal today. This is their counteroffer to President Biden’s proposed $2.3T American Jobs Plan.
Their proposal more narrowly defines infrastructure to roads and bridges ($699B), public transit systems ($61B), rail ($20B), safety (includes PHMSA) ($13B), drinking water and waste water infrastructure ($35B), inland waterways and ports ($17B), airports ($44B), broadband infrastructure ($65B), and water storage ($14B). They believe that it should be fully paid for to avoid increasing the national debt and that all users (e.g. electric vehicles) should contribute. They also want to preserve the 2017 tax cuts, including extending the cap on the state and local tax deduction and not increasing corporate (21%) or international taxes.
It isn’t clear if Democrats will “go big” right out of the gate, or embrace a two-bill strategy – one bipartisan smaller bill funding traditional infrastructure followed by a 2nd larger bill passed through the budget reconciliation process with only Democratic support.