{"id":89344,"date":"2021-03-23T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=518096"},"modified":"2021-03-23T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:15:00","slug":"bidens-team-is-teeing-up-a-massive-climate-and-infrastructure-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/23\/bidens-team-is-teeing-up-a-massive-climate-and-infrastructure-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s team is teeing up a massive climate and infrastructure bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since taking office in January, President Joe Biden has had his hands full managing the COVID-19 pandemic and rolling out the most aggressive vaccination drive in U.S. history. This month, congressional Democrats muscled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan<\/a> across the finish line, passing the first major bill of the Biden administration without a single Republican vote. With the first legislative hurdle of 2021 out of the way, the Biden team is reportedly turning to another time-sensitive crisis: climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the New York Times reported<\/a> that Biden\u2019s economic advisers are preparing to unveil a set of recommendations that will guide Biden\u2019s agenda for the next several months. The advisers, according to documents obtained by the Times, will suggest that the president split his \u201cBuild Back Better<\/a>\u201d plan, the jobs and economic recovery platform he campaigned on, into at least two major pieces of legislation. The first will focus on physical infrastructure \u2014 repairing the nation\u2019s roads, bridges, and tunnels, as well as investing heavily in clean energy, jobs training, and energy-efficient housing. The second will fortify the nation\u2019s \u201chuman infrastructure,\u201d investing in programs to help workers, parents, students, and children. In total, the two-pronged package could cost more than $3 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first prong, the climate-centered spending program, is what the Biden administration is expected to focus on in the near term. It looks a bit like the Green New Deal<\/a> that progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced the famous climate resolution<\/a> in 2019, have been advocating for. About $1 trillion will be funneled toward the obvious parts of America\u2019s infrastructure that need help \u2014 bridges, roads, pipes, power grids, railroads, and an expanded network of electric vehicle charging stations. Significant spending would also be directed toward \u201chigh-growth industries of the future\u201d like 5G telecommunications and renewable energy innovation and deployment. There would even be funding for a million energy-efficient and affordable housing units. The idea is to shore up the nation\u2019s ailing infrastructure and slash carbon emissions at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this is set in stone. First, Biden has to sign off on the plan his advisers drew up. He\u2019s on the record endorsing all of the ideas under the $3 trillion umbrella, but it\u2019s unclear whether he\u2019ll be enthused about breaking his Build Back Better plan into pieces. After the soft launch in the New York Times, Biden\u2019s advisers will introduce the plan to the president and legislative leaders this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Democrats embrace the piecemeal approach, the next step is to figure out how to get the proposal through the 50-50 Senate. Democrats were able to pass the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill via an obscure process called budget reconciliation<\/a>, which allows legislators to incorporate spending and tax measures into the federal budget \u2014 and to bypass the filibuster process that allows the minority party to block any Senate bill that doesn\u2019t have 60 votes. But the rules that govern the budget reconciliation process are strict. Democrats who were hoping that the COVID-19 relief bill would include a $15 federal minimum wage were disappointed when the parliamentarian, the person in charge of deciding what is \u201cbudget germane\u201d or not, ruled that the minimum wage requirement did not meet the budget reconciliation guidelines<\/a>. Portions of Biden\u2019s infrastructure plan could meet a similar fate in the offices of the House and Senate parliamentarians.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget reconciliation is supposed to be a backdoor solution to getting bills passed anyway. And with politicians on both sides of the aisle claiming to care about infrastructure, it shouldn\u2019t be a problem for Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But in today\u2019s polarized political environment, it\u2019s a tall order. Former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama both promised to fix the nation\u2019s infrastructure and couldn\u2019t make it happen<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then again, Republican and Democratic leadership are facing new pressure from their respective caucasus to come up with bipartisan solutions to congressional gridlock. Moderate Senate Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney<\/a>, and others have signaled that they have an appetite for climate action<\/a>. Moderate Democrats in the Senate, namely Joe Manchin of West Virginia<\/a>, want Biden to foster the kind of bipartisan collaboration he promised on the campaign trail and has been advocating for since. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major roadblock stands in the way of bipartisanship: Biden\u2019s team is proposing that some or all of the $3 trillion infrastructure proposal be paid for by raising taxes on corporations and possibly individuals who make more than $400,000 per year. If there\u2019s one thing Republicans hate, it\u2019s tax hikes. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be any enthusiasm on our side for a tax increase,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next few weeks, Biden will have to make a fraught political calculation: water down his climate infrastructure package so that it appeals to Republicans or try to get the whole enchilada passed without Republican support. The former is a gamble — there\u2019s no guaranteeing McConnell will rally his troops around a Democratic bill no matter how weak it is. The latter is also tricky — Biden risks alienating voters and some key members of his own party by going it alone. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says it\u2019s too early to say how the White House aims to drum up support for this bill. \u201cAny speculation about future economic proposals is premature and not a reflection of the White House\u2019s thinking,\u201d she said. Whatever ends up happening, one thing is almost certain: Climate change is back on the menu in Congress.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline Biden\u2019s team is teeing up a massive climate and infrastructure bill<\/a> on Mar 23, 2021.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the COVID-19 relief package out of the way, the Biden team is reportedly turning to another time-sensitive crisis: climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90167,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89344\/revisions\/90167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}