US Republicans unveil $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer

U.S. Senate Republicans unveiled a new infrastructure offer on Thursday that would spend $928 billion to revitalize America’s roads, bridges and broadband systems, still well below President Joe Biden’s last proposal.

The plan, from a group of six Republicans led by Senator Shelley Moore Capito, represents their counter-offer to a week-old White House proposal that slashed more than $500 billion from Biden’s original $2.25 trillion plan in a bid to reach a bipartisan agreement.

Biden has imposed an unofficial end-of-May deadline on the negotiations, and some Senate Democrats have been pushing to go it alone if Republicans do not reach an agreement soon.

The White House has expressed willingness to negotiate on some of the finer details but has said it wants a large package that expands the definition of infrastructure to include items such as free community college and paid family leave.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) asks questions during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the FY 2022 budget request for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, U.S. May 19, 2021. Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

To pay for it, the administration has said it is open to any ideas as long as they don’t include asking Americans earning less than $400,000 to pick up the bill.

Republicans have said their offer matches parameters set by Biden at a White House meeting on May 13, when they said he mentioned a $1 trillion figure.

Republicans initially proposed a $568 billion, five-year plan and increased the top line to around $800 billion over eight years when the two sides met on Capitol Hill on May 18, according to the lawmakers.

The proposal still leaves the two sides hundreds of billions of dollars apart, with no agreement on the scope of a package or how to pay for it.

Republicans want the package limited to roads, bridges, airports, waterways and broadband access. The group rejected the White House’s $1.7 trillion offer, saying it still contained social spending provisions and tax hikes on U.S. corporations that they have opposed.

Republicans instead proposed paying for the package with unspent COVID-19 relief money.

(Reporting by David Morgan, Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)