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But it also signals the most direct effort to counter questions and criticism from corners of their own party over an area of the deal that is seen to fall short of their ambitions – and the goals set out by Biden himself. .
The spending in the deal represents the biggest investment in public transit in U.S. history, the official said, and comes at an urgent time as aging and unreliable equipment – facing more than $ 100 billion in repair delays, by some estimates – has undermined public transit. agencies across the country.
Given the role of public transit in communities, it is also viewed by White House officials as a central pillar in Biden’s push on issues such as fairness, climate and economic justice.
The deal would include a one-time increase in transit funding, coupled with a five-year reauthorization for transit programs equal to approximately $ 20 billion from the level set in the last reauthorization.
“This bipartisan agreement is the largest transit investment in American history,” Biden said in a statement the day the final agreement was signed.
Pressure from the White House to highlight what they see as clear wins, especially given their negotiating partners, comes at a critical time to measure as Biden and his team prepare to step up support Democrat in the first element of his vast economic program of $ 4 trillion.
The Senate is currently reviewing the bill, and advisers from both parties say it remains on track to pass in the coming days.
But the momentum is less established in the House, where Democrats hold a slim majority and Progressives have raised a series of concerns about the scope and breadth of the deal Biden signed with Senate negotiators.
The deal is billions less than Biden first proposed in his U.S. jobs plan and falls short of a measure passed by the House in terms of funding and progressive policy prescriptions, especially climate related. . Even the final deal emerged with $ 10 billion less in one-time transit funding than was previously stated as part of the deal, which was reached in June – something that caught some off guard. advocates of public transport.
For White House officials, this marks the reality of the compromises needed for Biden to secure his sought-after bipartisan deal. This is something that Biden, in public and in private, has made it clear that he considers essential to prove that the federal government can actually get things done. But it’s also a deal, officials note, that is essential to pave the way for the sweeping second part of his legislative agenda – a $ 3.5 trillion proposal filled with progressive priorities.
“Of course neither side got everything they wanted in this deal. But that’s what it means to compromise and forge consensus – the heart of democracy,” Biden said last week. .
White House officials have been looking at what they see as clear political benefits of the deal, circulating polls to their Democratic allies, highlighting how much voters support the overall proposal.
“What is clear from these polls – as well as other polls released in recent weeks – is that President Biden continues to come up with and implement plans that the American people, regardless of party, agree they are good to the country, while continuing to maintain near universal approval among voters on his part, ”wrote Mike Donilon, one of Biden’s closest advisers, in an August 2 memo obtained by CNN which included a slew of new positive poll numbers linked to the deal.
But the White House is now moving quickly to try to highlight what it sees as key political victories in the deal, despite initial detractors.
The billions of new money off the baseline of the five-year reauthorization deal was a concession secured in the final days of negotiation, serving as a key victory for Democrats on an issue that had been the focus of the negotiations. one of the most difficult needles to thread. in the talks, according to a Democrat familiar with the negotiations. It is designed to serve as a key mechanism for funding administration priorities outside of the agreement itself in the years to come.
Still, it’s clear that there is work to be done to sell the deal to skeptical members within the party, perhaps no more than the most powerful lawmaker in the House on transportation issues: Representative Peter DeFazio, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“I have sought to bring us into the 21st century with transportation,” DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who led the House measure to the passage, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Monday. “It sounds like a standstill bill. We cannot perpetuate this.”
Still, there were times in the final days of negotiations when it was unclear whether transit would really be part of the final deal as the two sides wrangled over the amount of funding in the final deal, according to several. people familiar with the talks. .
Democrats in the talks made it clear, however, that cutting the transit room entirely was not a start, according to the Democrat familiar with the negotiations. They lobbied and secured additional transit funds as part of the re-authorization of the final deal.
The White House official also countered that the deal would represent funds for repairs, upgrades, upgrades and expansions of high-quality transit options in new communities has no precedent in recent history.
DeFazio has said he would like to give his proposal to the Senate version, which White House officials have reported to Capitol Hill is a non-starter given the tenuous nature of the coalition that has come together to get the agreement of the Senate.
It’s a reality that may shift attention to the second element of Biden’s agenda – the already slated $ 3.5 trillion proposal to direct billions into federal expansions for progressive priorities in education, child care. ‘children and paid holidays.
Biden and his team, for now, have made it clear that the two agenda items are in the midst of a long and, in many ways, traditional legislative negotiation process. The infrastructure package, still seen as the first piece of the way to the agenda, is now making progress in the Senate.
A vote on the budget resolution necessary to unblock the second part of the process is expected as soon as the bill on infrastructure is voted on.
This will mark a kind of starting point for this second play, and a process that officials on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue recognize will be punctuated by significant battles between the moderate and progressive sides of the Democratic Party.
“It’s a process,” National Economic Director Brian Deese told FOX News on Sunday. “And the good news that we’ve seen over the past week is that this process is moving forward and going in a way that a lot of people said they didn’t think was possible just a few weeks ago.”
This story has been updated with additional reports.
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