Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday said he is “very confident” that Republicans and the White House will reach an agreement on an infrastructure bill.
“There’s a lot that’s been done with the COVID bills that we put out that basically overlap in some areas of infrastructure, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. And I think we can come to that compromise to where we’ll find a bipartisan deal. I’m very, very confident of that,” Manchin told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the Republican Party’s leading negotiator on infrastructure, raised the GOP’s current offer by $50 billion last week, after meeting one-on-one with President Biden Wednesday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that while Biden “expressed his gratitude for her effort and goodwill” he also “indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis, and create new jobs.”
This comes after Senate Republicans unveiled a $928 billion infrastructure proposal last month. The offer, while substantially more than the caucus’s initial $568 billion proposal introduced in April, fell far short of the $1.7 trillion counteroffer White House officials made last week.
Manchin said the White House and Senate Republicans are “not that far apart,” adding “we think we can find a pathway for it.”