Politico | Joe Biden lauds bipartisan deal, but ‘human infrastructure’ a must
- US president and senators reach tentative bipartisan infrastructure agreement
- Package must win support of progressive Democrats, conservative Republicans
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Quint Forgey on politico.com on June 24, 2021.
The president’s declaration, made less than two hours after he and a group of 10 senators appeared outside the White House to announce their agreement on a US$579 billion proposal, comes at a particularly perilous moment for both measures.
The bipartisan package must now win the support of progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans, while the broader “human infrastructure” bill – likely to be routed through the legislative reconciliation process – must attract support from all 50 Senate Democrats to win passage.
But Biden seemed confident about the fate of the two proposals on Thursday afternoon, appearing vindicated that his sometimes-derided approach to bipartisan deal-making had yielded results.
“Let me be clear: neither side got everything they wanted in this deal,” he told reporters. “That’s what it means to compromise. And it reflects something important. It reflects consensus. The heart of democracy.”
Biden said his attention would now turn to legislating “the other half” of his economic agenda, “to finish the job on child care, education, the caring economy, clean energy and tax cuts for American families”.
Such examples of what Biden called “human infrastructure” are “inextricably intertwined” with the physical-infrastructure provisions he had negotiated with the working group of senators.