Pelosi: ‘No intention’ of abandoning Democrats’ infrastructure goals

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said she has “no intention” of abandoning Democrats’ infrastructure goals, as negotiations continue with Republicans for a bipartisan package.

A group of Democratic and Republican senators on Thursday announced an agreement on a “compromise framework” to invest $1.2 trillion in infrastructure over the next eight years.

The package includes more funding than the Republican offers that were unveiled last month, but is still less than what the White House previously put forward.

When asked by host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” if she could agree to the package as long as there is a promise for “a second bite at the apple,” Pelosi said “as Congress works its will, we will just see what the possibilities are.”

“I have heard him [Biden] say with Republicans in the room, let’s figure out what we can agree on, on infrastructure. Let’s see if we can come to a reasonable amount of money to get that work done, but I have no intention of abandoning the rest of my vision about the better — building back better,” Pelosi said.

She said the initiatives being discussed in the package are “by and large, something that could have been talked about 50 years ago.”

“We’re talking about the future,” she added.

Pelosi said that while she thinks Democrats have a “responsibility… to find common ground, if we can,” Democratic lawmakers will “have to stand our ground” if negotiations fail.

“But we have to understand that, if we can come to terms in a bipartisan way, that would be — I think the public wants to see that,” Pelosi said.

“Infrastructure has always been bipartisan. It’s never — I mean, it’s always been, let’s see how we can work together for our communities. Let’s find agreement in the communities as to what is important,” she added.

Biden last week broke off prolonged infrastructure negotiations with a GOP group led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and said he would move forward on discussions with the bipartisan group of senators.

The group includes Republican Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Bill Cassidy (La.), in addition to Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mark Warner (Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Jon Tester (Mont).