President Joe Biden presents the $2 trillion American Jobs Plan in Pennsylvania, March 31, 2021


The Biden Administration sends a revised, $1.7 billion American Jobs Plan to Senate Republicans.

The “once-in-a-generation” proposal is a reduction of about $500 billion from the original Plan. The Administration hoped concessions would revive stalled talks, but the GOP leadership swiftly rejected the approach.

Biden has sought a bipartisan support for his historic initiatives. But almost all Republican legislators have refused.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic and its economic effects, passed in March with not a single vote from GOP Senators. They have also balked at the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, tabled last month.

See also Biden Unveils $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

$1.7 Trillion v. GOP’s $225 Billion

The American Jobs Plan provides funding for 20,000 miles of roads, the 10 most important bridges, water pipes, broadband Internet, the electricity grid, and electric vehicle charging stations.

The investment is linked to measures addressing the climate crisis with cleaner energy sources, reducing economic inequality, and strengthening American competitiveness. Community care facilities for seniors and people with disabilities will be improved, schools modernized, and homes and office buildings retrofitted. Programs will be launched to train millions of workers.

Funding will come from a rise in corporate taxes to 28% from 21%, more than three years after the Trump Administration slashed the rate from 35%. Multinational corporations will pay more taxes on profits earned abroad.

The revised proposal removes a provision for advanced manufacturing and research and development efforts in emerging industries like advanced batteries, where China is also pursuing advances. Part of that provision is in a separate, bipartisan bill in process through the Senate.

The package also accepts a Republican offer of $65 billion for broadband, down from $100 billion, and reduces the highway spending plans by $40 billion. It creates an infrastructure bank, using public capital to encourage private investment, which the GOP legislators sought.

Republicans have countered with a $568 billion plan, which includes extensions of some federal infrastructure spending. The Biden Administration assesses that there is no more than $225 billion “above current levels Congress has traditionally funded”.

The GOP counter-proposal rejects any rise in corporation taxes. Instead, it takes money from the American Rescue Plan and raises user fees like the gasoline tax.

GOP Senators: “Vast Differences”

The Republican senators wasted no time in rebuffing the Administration’s initiative. The spokeswoman for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the leader of the GOP negotiating group, said the $1.7 trillion is “well above the range of what can pass Congress with bipartisan support”:

There continue to be vast differences between the White House and Senate Republicans when it comes to the definition of infrastructure, the magnitude of proposed spending, and how to pay for it. Based on today’s meeting, the groups seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they were after one meeting with President Biden.

Some Democrats, such as Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, urged the Administrationnot to “waste time” in protracted talks with Republicans.

“A smaller infrastructure package means fewer jobs, less justice, less climate action, and less investment in America’s future,” Markey said.

As with the American Rescue Plan, the Administration could use the “budget reconciliation” process to prevent a Republican filibuster to avoid a final vote. Normally, 60 Senators must back an end to the filibuster.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the chairman of the Budget Committee, met on Thursday with the Senate Parliamentarian to discuss how to proceed without Republicans.