Bipartisan $1 Trillion Infrastructure Package Gains Steam

According to a draft outline of the proposal, the plan would dedicate $110 billion in new spending to bridges and roads, $65 billion to expanding access to broadband, and $48.5 billion to public transit, among other priorities. Extended over an eight-year timeline, the plan would spend a total of $1.2 trillion.

The draft, first obtained by Politico, also includes a number of ways to finance the package, a central issue in the talks. It proposes indexing the gas tax to inflation, increasing IRS enforcement to collect unpaid taxes, collecting an annual fee from electric vehicles, and repurposing existing federal funds. An infrastructure financing authority, public-private partnerships, and direct-pay municipal bonds are also included as possible financing mechanisms.

But Senate aides familiar with the negotiations said the draft doesn’t represent the group’s final proposal. The White House has opposed raising the gas tax and placing fees on electric vehicles, and Democrats in the group met with top White House officials on Capitol Hill Wednesday. White House officials were expected to brief Mr. Biden on the negotiations after his return from his trip abroad.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said during a press conference Thursday that she would be opposed to repurposing money designated for Covid aid or raising the gas tax to pay for an infrastructure package.

“I do not think we should be taking money out of the pockets of people on unemployment or take money out of the rescue package because it’s there for a purpose. But let’s just see what it is,” Mrs. Pelosi said.

Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) said Democrats had proposed alternatives to the gas tax and electric vehicle proposals, and several lawmakers involved in the talks said negotiations were ongoing about how to pay for the package.

The support of more than 10 Republicans for the plan is a sign that it could ultimately win enough votes to clear the 60-vote threshold in the 50-50 Senate. Some Democrats who are not part of the bipartisan group say they support the effort. Others, including key progressive lawmakers, have attacked the group’s plan this week, arguing that it is not large enough, and have demanded that Democrats move forward with a process called reconciliation to approve a larger package without Republican support.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has said Democrats will pursue both a larger package along party lines and a bipartisan deal.

At a meeting Wednesday of Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, which controls the reconciliation process, lawmakers discussed putting together a plan that could spend up to $6 trillion, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who is the chairman of the committee. About half of that cost would be paid for with tax increases on corporations and wealthy Americans and savings generated by allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, according to people familiar with the meeting. Lawmakers also said they were looking at approving immigration measures through reconciliation.

“What we are working right now is on a budget that builds on the proposals that the president has brought to us,” Mr. Sanders said.

Mr. Sanders told reporters Thursday that allowing Medicare to negotiate over the cost of prescription drugs would generate savings to lower the age of eligibility for Medicare, as well as to expand its dental, hearing and vision benefits.

The proposals discussed by Democrats at Wednesday’s meeting go beyond the more than $4 trillion the White House has proposed to spend on an infrastructure plan and a separate package focused on child care and education.

Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), a member of the bipartisan group leading infrastructure negotiations, indicated that a $6 trillion plan may be too large for him to support.

“I know there needs to be reconciliation. But that also doesn’t mean that I accept all of what the president proposed and all of what Sen. Sanders has proposed,” Mr. Warner said.

Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

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Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com and Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com