Lawmakers Scramble to Get Pet Projects Funded Under Biden’s $2.3 Trillion Infrastructure Plan; GOP Offers $586B Counter to Biden Plan, and related stories

Lawmakers scramble to get pet projects funded under infrastructure plan:

As Democrats work to turn President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure outline into a concrete plan, lawmakers are scrambling to ensure projects helpful to their own states make it into the final cut of the bill.

Members of the House and Senate are pushing to get a cut of the massive federal spending package directed toward home-state tunnels, highways, train routes, and more.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats are still debating how to pay for the sprawling plan. Biden met Monday at the White House with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to debate whether to raise the corporate tax rate to pay for the bill, as the White House suggested, as well as some of the things that might make it into the final legislation.

Here are some examples of the kinds of pricey projects that could get funding under the plan.

GATEWAY TUNNEL

New York and New Jersey lawmakers from both parties have spent years trying to score federal funds for a tunnel connecting their two states by rail under the Hudson River.

But conservatives on Capitol Hill have long fought to stop taxpayer money from flowing to a regional project from which most people wouldn’t benefit. Facing a potential government shutdown in 2018, former President Donald Trump even threatened to veto an entire omnibus spending bill if it included any money for Gateway. … —>READ MORE HERE

GOP offers $586B counter to Biden infrastructure plan:

Senate Republicans unveiled their counterproposal to President Biden’s $2.5 trillion infrastructure plan on Thursday, offering a narrower alternative to the broad, mammoth plan.

The framework — spearheaded by GOP Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mike Crapo of Idaho and John Barrasso of Wyoming — would total $568 billion, and excludes provisions laid out in Democrats’ plan that look to target issues like racial inequality, care for elderly and disabled people and climate change.

Under the plan, $299 billion would be allocated toward roads and bridges, $65 billion would go toward broadband expansion, $61 billion for public transit, $44 billion for airports, $35 billion for water systems, $20 billion for railways, $17 billion for inland waterways and ports, $14 billion for water storage and $13 billion for safety measures.

Capito said both sides of the aisle believe the nation’s aging infrastructure needs to be addressed, adding she thinks the “robust package” could garner some bipartisan support. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories:

Senate GOP crafts outlines for infrastructure counter proposal

GOP says Biden’s $2T infrastructure plan will ‘create slush funds’ for Democrats

‘Infrastructure’ Bill Props ‘Feeding Frenzy’ Among Swampy DC Lobbyists

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