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Here's what's in President Biden's counteroffer on infrastructure

May 2021

Nearly two months after President Joe Biden laid out his massive plan to upgrade the nation's infrastructure, White House officials presented a slimmed-down version as a counteroffer to Republican lawmakers who are seeking a much smaller program.

The new plan would reduce the size of Biden's initial proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan, from $2.25 trillion to $1.7 trillion and make four key concessions, according to the counteroffer document obtained by CNN.

  • Biden is prepared to take off the table the manufacturing, research and development and innovation elements and pursue them in separate legislative processes.
  • Biden will accept the GOP proposed funding level of $65 billion in broadband investments. His plan called for spending $100 billion on broadband, but the White House still believes they can achieve universal access to affordable high-speed internet at the lower funding level, though it will take longer.
  • Biden is willing to reduce his request for $159 billion in funding above current levels in roads, bridges, and major infrastructure projects to just $120 billion in new investment. The Senate Republican framework called for $48 billion.
  • The White House says it is willing to find common ground on a financing facility with a range of infrastructure projects eligible, including energy infrastructure. The Biden plan included $27 billion for a facility that would leverage private capital into energy infrastructure projects and another $10 billion for a facility that would offer debt and equity capital to small and medium-sized manufacturers.

    • However, the White House also pointed to nine other areas that they consider important but that the GOP lawmakers either left out or funded at lower levels.

    These include the $400 billion measure to bolster caregiving for aging and disabled Americans and improve the wages of home health workers, which is the second largest piece of Biden's plan, as well as investments in the remediation of brownfields and other environmental sites, the construction and modernization of veterans' hospitals, the enhancement of workforce development programs, the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure, the elimination of lead pipes and the strengthening the resilience of transportation and other physical infrastructure to better extreme weather, among others.

    Read more about President Biden's counteroffer on infrastructure here: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/politics/biden-infrastructure-proposal-co...