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By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States Senate returns to one of its most ambitious agendas in years on Monday as Democratic President Joe Biden seeks billions of dollars in infrastructure spending and Republicans promise “one hell of a fight” against rising taxes to pay it.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer aims to hold debates and votes this summer on $ 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan https://www.reuters.com/world/us/whats -us-senates-12-trillion-infrastructure-plan-2021 -06-24 and the first step towards a second measure that would pass with only Democratic votes.
“Senators must be prepared for the possibility of working long nights, weekends and staying in Washington until the previously scheduled August break,” Schumer wrote in a letter Friday to 47 fellow Democrats and two. independents aligned with him. His Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, has promised a “hellish fight”.
Amid the brewing battle over the proposed $ 1.2 trillion plan, Congress could find itself embroiled in a potentially divisive debate over raising the statutory limit on U.S. borrowing power, which expires in late July.
While the Treasury Department should be able to manage several weeks beyond the July 31 deadline, global financial markets will become increasingly nervous about a possible United States default on their debt plus the issue. is not resolved.
Democrats control both houses of Congress by very thin margins and can only afford to lose a few votes in the House of Representatives and none in the Senate if they are to succeed. They both see the overall infrastructure package as potentially the most important legislation to pass ahead of next year’s election that will determine congressional control for the second half of Biden’s four-year term.
During the July 4 recess, a bipartisan group of senators attempted to work out the final details of the first piece of the infrastructure puzzle, a plan they sketched out in late June. Agreeing on how to fund the $ 1.2 trillion prize has proven to be a challenge, according to lawmakers and congressional advisers.
The deal would fund the reconstruction of roads, bridges and other traditional infrastructure projects and bring broadband internet service to more rural areas.
He received a boost last week from the Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said there was “a decent chance” the bipartisan bill could gain traction in deeply divided Congress. He warned that spending must be financed somehow without adding to the national debt.
‘NOT THE RIGHT THING’
Speaking at public events in his home state of Kentucky last week, McConnell kept his grim assessments for tax hikes in other infrastructure legislation Democrats are expected to produce in addition to the draft. bipartite law.
“It’s going to be a hell of a fight. … It’s not the right thing to do for the country,” McConnell warned as he attacked Biden’s plans for possible tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. to help finance the cost of certain infrastructure investments.
One measure, to be crafted sometime before the August recess begins, would simply provide the technical framework to impose the Senate – without the support of Republicans – a second, more important infrastructure measure to build on the bipartisan plan of 1 , $ 2 trillion.
This Democrat-only plan would require a maneuver called “reconciliation https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senates-reconciliation-process-its-not-way-it-sounds-2021-06-16” which bypass Senate rules requiring 60 votes to pass most laws.
The big package is set to be the last piece of Biden’s freshman legislative dreams: a partisan “human infrastructure” bill in the fall to invest huge sums to tackle climate change, while expanding opportunities education across the United States; and home health care for the elderly and others.
McConnell has attacked these initiatives and hopes to generate opposition from some moderate Democrats.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a leading Liberal, is seeking up to $ 6 trillion in new investment, while other more moderate Democrats on his panel want less.
Corporate lobbyists, along with Republicans, were already making plans to thwart the https://reut.rs/3AMBeKw initiative, arguing that tax increases would hurt a U.S. economy emerging from the rubble of the pandemic of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Democrats of all political stripes will seek to tie up important provisions for their constituents. Progressives are calling for a temporary extension of a child tax credit to be turned into a permanent benefit. And, lawmakers in heavily Democratic states with high taxes are insisting that the State and Local Tax Deduction Cap (SALT), which was included in a 2017 Republican tax law, be relaxed.
“No SALT, no dice,” Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, where state and local taxes are high compared to the national average, told MSNBC last week.
With the Democrats ‘very slim majorities in the House and Senate, party leaders in both chambers will have to heed each of their members’ demands or risk losing enough support for one of these to pass. law projects.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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