Senate Infrastructure Talks Continue…

President Biden and Sen. Capito (R-WV) met again on Tuesday to discuss infrastructure.  President Biden previously rejected Senate Republicans’ $928 billion infrastructure offer, which had $257 billion of new net spending. The President had dropped his $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan to $1.7 trillion in new spending.  Sen. Romney (R-UT) said he and five other senators have drawn up another proposal to present to a wider, bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers.  Sen. Manchin (D-WV) has stood firm on wanting a bipartisan infrastructure deal and he’s not giving his party leaders his blessing to go it alone on another big spending package after Democrats used the reconciliation process to pass the pandemic relief measure earlier this year without GOP votes.  Democratic leaders are considering using the reconciliation process again for President Biden’s infrastructure proposal.