Amid increasing opposition from Republicans over his $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, President Biden is dispatching five administration officials this week to sell a plan the administration says will not only rebuild roads and bridges but also reverse long-running racial disparities.
Mr. Biden is hoping the five secretaries can build support both in Congress and throughout the country for the first piece of a two-part plan to rebuild the American economy. The officials — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Marcia L. Fudge, the housing secretary; Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm; and Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh — will work to court the bipartisan backing Mr. Biden has said he seeks for the package.
“When you’re in a situation where you can’t turn on a water fountain in school because the water affects your health, that’s infrastructure,” Mr. Biden said Monday as he returned to Washington from spending the weekend at Camp David. “I’m talking about making sure we take asbestos out of schools, that’s infrastructure. I’m talking about building high-speed rail, that’s infrastructure.”
Also Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris will highlight the benefits of the American Jobs Plan during a meeting with California leaders and a small-business owner in Oakland.
But the public relations campaign comes as Republicans appear to be coalescing around a message of their own: Mr. Biden’s plan is really a giant social welfare initiative and tax increase masquerading as infrastructure.
On Sunday, leading Republican senators said the proposal fell far short of a serious attempt to work across the aisle and previewed arguments they will deploy in the weeks ahead in a bid to undercut its popular support.
“If the president wants a bipartisan plan, how can he possibly try to get something passed that every single — that repeals a bill that every single Republican in the Senate voted for?” Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” referring to Mr. Biden’s proposal to reverse some of the Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts to pay for the infrastructure bill.
“To me, I don’t see the bipartisan gesture there,” he added.
Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, said he had pitched the White House on a smaller package, around $600 billion, more narrowly focused on traditional infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, airports and ports and funded by user fees and other revenue streams that would not require raising corporate taxes. While Mr. Biden’s plan includes hundreds of billions of dollars for such projects,…
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