Biden pushes jobs bill to bipartisan group

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden met with lawmakers Monday to seek support for his $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs bill while the White House issued a breakout of benefits that would come to Nevada and other states in the sweeping legislation.

The Biden White House is trying to put pressure on Republicans who oppose the plan that would be paid for with raising the corporate tax to 28 percent from 21 percent.

“We need to build the infrastructure of today and not repair the one of yesterday,” Biden said.

As Congress returned from recess, the meeting between Biden and lawmakers at the White House was choreographed to represent an outreach by the Democratic administration to the GOP, some members of which have called the proposal a “job-crushing” plan and giveaway to unions and special interests.

Republicans criticized the rollback of the corporate tax which was lowered during the Trump administration, when the GOP controlled both houses of Congress.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has tagged the president’s plan as “Bidenomics” that does little to improve infrastructure and instead focuses on the Green New Deal.

But McCarthy was not one of the Republicans at the White House on Monday.

Open to negotiations

Biden told the bipartisan group he was open to negotiation on the size and funding of the package, but that would not accept a lack of action on the bill that he said would create millions of high-paying jobs and allow America to remain competitive with other nations.

The White House said senators attending the meeting would be Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington and Alex Padilla of California, and Republicans Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

House members taking part were Democrats David Price of North Carolina and Donald Payne of New Jersey and Republicans Garret Graves of Louisiana and Don Young of Alaska.

The White House reached out to regional media to explain how each state would benefit from the infrastructure and jobs bill to build, improve and repair roads, bridges, highways, rail, pipelines, schools, the electrical grid and provide broadband access.

“Every state, every part of this country, will see a major benefit,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told regional reporters during an virtual briefing.

Nevada benefits

In Nevada, the White House said 28 bridges and 1,090 miles in need of roads in need of repair and eligible for funding from a $600 billion pot for transportation infrastructure and $115 billion nationally to repair roads and bridges.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., a subcommittee chairwoman on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said any bill should provide funding for Interstate 11 between Las Vegas and Phoenix, reduce congestion on Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Southern California and pay for rail projects from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

The details on funding projects, particularly transportation, will be ironed out by Congress.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that funding to states would likely come from formula, or competitive, grants as most funding does now.

Nevadans who take public transportation would see benefits from improvements to public transit; $85 billion in the Biden package would go to public transportation to ease wait times and efficiency, according to the White House.

Nevada’s drinking water infrastructure would require $5.3 billion to improve, according to the Biden administration. The bill has a pot of $111 billion to provide clean drinking water.

The president’s plan also calls for $100 billion to provide broadband nationwide. The White House said roughly 8.4 percent of Nevada residents lack that access.

Money to provide housing assistance also could help 243,000 renters in the state with needs.

The Biden jobs bill would also provide money to repair and update veterans clinics, providing funding to make homes energy efficient and provide incentives to boost manufacturing and clean energy that will create jobs in the state, according to the White House.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she expects a vote on the package by Fourth of July.

Hurdles exist in the evenly split Senate, where Democrats control the chamber on a tie-breaking vote by the vice president.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled last week that the bill could be brought up under rules that would allow Democrats to bypass a Republican filibuster and pass the legislation with a simple majority.

Some Democrats, like moderate Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have suggested a compromise on the corporate tax hike proposed to pay for the bill.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.