Joe Biden withdraws threat to veto US$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill

Republicans expressed frustration that Biden explicitly connected the signing of the bill and a multi-trillion dollar social spending package

‘My 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,’ Biden said

Reading Time:3 minutes

US President Joe Biden. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:34am, 27 Jun 2021Updated: 4:02pm, 28 Jun 2021

Aiming to preserve a fragile bipartisan deal on infrastructure, US President Joe Biden endorsed it “without hesitation” on Saturday, walking back from a threat to veto it if Congress also did not pass an even larger package to expand the social safety net.

Biden said he did not mean to suggest in earlier remarks that he would veto the nearly US$1 trillion infrastructure bill unless Congress also passed a broader package of investments that he and fellow Democrats aim to approve along party lines, the two together totalling some US$4 trillion.

Speaking on Thursday moments after fulfilling his hopes of reaching a bipartisan accord, Biden appeared to put the deal in jeopardy with his comment that the infrastructure bill would have to move in “tandem” with the larger bill.

Though Biden had been clear he would pursue the massive new spending for child care, Medicare and other investments, Republicans balked at the president’s notion that he would not sign one without the other. “If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” Biden said then of the infrastructure bill. “It’s in tandem.”

By Saturday, Biden was seeking to clarify those comments, after his top negotiators Steve Ricchetti and Louisa Terrell worked to assure senators that Biden remained enthusiastic about the deal.

“My comments also 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,” Biden said in a statement.

“I intend to pursue the passage of that plan, which Democrats and Republicans agreed to on Thursday, with vigour,” Biden added. “It would be good for the economy, good for our country, good for our people. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation.”