Biden announces bipartisan infrastructure agreement

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Veronica Rocha, Maureen Chowdhury and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN

Updated 5:58 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

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5:58 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Key things to know about the bipartisan infrastructure deal Biden agreed to

From CNN's Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby

President Biden announced he has agreed to a deal with a bipartisan group of senators.

Although many details remain unknown, the proposed deal will cost $1.2 trillion over eight years, with $579 billion in new spending, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. However, this falls short of Biden’s initial $2.25 trillion plan which he unveiled in March.

Here’s what we know about some key parts of the deal:

Roads and bridges: The plan includes $109 billion for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects. This is $50 billion less than Biden requested initially.
Public transit: The plan also provides $49 billion for public transit, $66 billion for rail, $25 billion for airports and $16 billion for ports and waterways.
Water and power systems: $55 billion will be invested in water infrastructure and $73 billion in the nation’s power structure. Some of this money would be used to eliminate the nation's lead service lines and pipes.
Broadband investment: The plan would provide $65 billion to make improvements to the country's broadband system. Originally, Biden wanted $100 billion to ensure citizens have reliable, high-speed internet. However, the President lowered his ask during negotiations.
Electric vehicles: The bipartisan plan also includes $7.5 billion to build a network of electric vehicle chargers along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities. The goal is to build 500,000 electric vehicle chargers. Another $7.5 billion will go toward making thousands of school and transit buses electric.

Things to keep in mind:

How it will be funded: The full details on how the package would be paid for remain to be seen, but the bipartisan proposal focuses on using unspent funds from prior relief packages, as well as revenue from selling off strategic oil reserves. Moreover, lawmakers believe that they could bring in more than $100 billion from unspent pandemic unemployment benefits funding and from pursuing fraudulent jobless payments. It is uncertain whether these measures would provide that much money.
What's missing: The deal leaves out Biden’s proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster caregiving for aging and disabled Americans – the second largest measure in his original package. Also left on the sideline: $100 billion for workforce development, which would have helped dislocated workers, assisted underserved groups and put students on career paths before they graduate high school. Nevertheless, Democrats said they still plan to push these ideas through separate legislation.

Read more about the plan here.

CNN's Alyssa Kraus contributed to this post.

5:33 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

McConnell criticizes Biden for threatening to veto bipartisan deal after endorsing it

From CNN's Ali Zaslav

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized President Biden for threatening not to sign a bipartisan infrastructure package, just two hours after endorsing the deal.

“That’s no way to show you’re serious about getting a bipartisan outcome,” he argued in floor remarks on Thursday.

McConnell said Biden’s pressers today “was a tale of two press conferences,” at the first, “endorse the agreement in one breath” and then “threaten to veto it in the next.” He argued Biden caved to the “left wing base” in just “two hours.”

The Kentucky Republican was referring to Biden’s remarks that he would not sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless the investments he has proposed in his American Families Plan, which Democratic leadership plans on passing through the budget reconciliation process, also end up on his desk.

"If this is the only thing that comes to me, I'm not signing it. It's in tandem," Biden said.

He also slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for making clear “they would hold the bipartisan agreement hostage demanding trillions of dollars in wasteful spending and job killing tax increases in return for even considering it.”

4:36 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

McConnell still "listening" on infrastructure deal

From CNN's Ted Barrett and Manu Raju

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he is still in a “listening” mode when it comes to the infrastructure deal that was just reached.

“We just had a briefing with the folks who were in the with President, it was a good meeting and I’m still listening,” he told reporters in the Capitol.

President Biden today said he had signed off an agreement reached with White House officials and 10 senators on a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Biden called the deal a "true bipartisan effort."

Read more about the plan here.

3:33 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Schumer backs Pelosi plan to hold up bipartisan deal until Democratic-only bill passes Senate

From CNN's Manu Raju

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington,DC, Thursday, June 24. Alex Brandon/AP

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters he backed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to hold up a House vote on a bipartisan infrastructure deal until after the Senate passes the Democratic-only reconciliation bill. He called it "a good way to ensure that both ends go forward."

And he said that his pitch to Sen. Joe Manchin and other Democrats is "if we don't have unity, we're going to get nothing done."

Schumer said that Democrats are going to have to negotiate among themselves how high they will go on reconciliation. He would not say if he backs the $6 trillion price tag that Sen. Bernie Sanders floated for the reconciliation bill.

"It's a very good proposal, but obviously the Budget Committee, the views of the members, are going to span the gamut, they run from Bernie, to Mark Warner, and we're all going to have to come together on, on a number and on a budget," he said.

Schumer said he supports tax hikes on high earners and corporations in the reconciliation package.

3:04 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Biden says bipartisan infrastructure bill and budget resolution must go through Congress "in tandem"

From CNN's Maegan Vazquez

President Biden said on Thursday that he expects Congress will take up votes on both the newly agreed upon bipartisan infrastructure deal and the budget resolution before the fiscal year is over, saying he will not sign the measures if only one ends up on his desk.

When asked if he received any reassurances that both measures will come to him for his signature in tandem, Biden said, “I control that."

"If they don’t come, I’m not signing it. Real simple. So, what I expect – I expect that in the coming months this summer, before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this bill, the infrastructure bill, as well as voted on the budget resolution," Biden added. "But if only one comes to me – if this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem."

The President also said he supports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plan to hold the bipartisan infrastructure deal in the House until the Senate also passes reconciliation.

“Look, the bipartisan bill from the very beginning was understood there’s going to have to be the second part of it,” Biden continued. “I’m not just signing the bipartisan bill and forgetting about the rest I proposed. I proposed a significant piece of legislation in three parts. And all three parts are equally important.”

“My party is divided but my party is also rational. If they can’t get every single thing they want but all that they have in the bill before them is good, are they going to vote no? I don’t think so,” the President said.

2:55 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Biden says he trusts GOP senators who negotiated bipartisan infrastructure deal to keep their word

From CNN's DJ Judd

President Biden expressed optimism that Republicans would keep their word and support today’s bipartisan framework on infrastructure, telling reporters, “I worked with a lot of these people in the room. I know them.”

“Everybody knows and you guys know when certain senators tell you something they mean it. And others you take, you discount,” Biden told reporters in the White House East Room. “Where I come from, in my years in the Senate, the single greatest currency you have is your word, keeping your word. Mitt Romney's never broken his word to me. You know, the Senator from Alaska, the Senator from New Hampshire, they've never broken their word—the Senator from Maine, they’re friends. And so, the people I was with today are people that I trust," Biden said while taking questions from reporters at the White House."

"The people I was with today are people that I trust. I don't agree with them on a lot of things, but I trust them when they say, 'This is the deal. We'll stick to the deal,'" Biden said.

Biden pointed to lingering areas of disagreement, including investments on climate resilience.

“But for example there's, I made it clear today, there's other things in the environment I want to get done,” Biden said. “So, there's things, so when I said we agree, I'm not going to go back and renegotiate the Amtrak piece, but I am going to fight for trying to get 300 billion dollars more for tax credits for the environment.”

Watch here:

4:03 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Biden on bipartisan deal: "Neither side got everything they want"

From CNN's Josiah Ryan

President Biden today characterized the bipartisan deal on an infrastructure package as a "true bipartisan effort," noting that it is a compromise in that neither Republicans or Democrats got everything they wanted.

"Let me be clear — neither side got everything they want in this deal," he said, speaking at the White House this afternoon. "That's what it means to compromise. And it reflects something important, it reflects consensus. The heart of democracy. It requires consensus."

He also suggested the agreement could be a harbinger of a more bipartisan era of dealmaking in the Beltway in the months to come.

“This group of senators, and all the American people can be proud today, because we reaffirmed once again, we are the United States of America,” Biden said.

“There's not a single thing beyond our capacity that we aren't able to do, when we do it together,” The President added.

The agreement, hashed out among 5 Republican senators and 5 Democratic senators Wednesday evening, would have a total cost of $1.2 trillion over eight years, with $559 billion in new spending, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

This proposal is significantly less than what Biden had initially proposed. The President initially put forward a $2.25 trillion plan to rebuild the nation's infrastructure and shift to greener energy over the next eight years.

"It reflects something important," said Biden. "It reflects consensus. The heart of democracy requires consensus."

This deal "signals to ourselves and to the world that American democracy can deliver, he said. "Because of that, it represents an important step forward for our country."

Watch here:

CNN's Kate Sullivan and Phil Mattingly contributed reporting to this post.

2:37 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Biden: "The bipartisan agreement represents the largest investment in public transit in American history"

President Biden championed the bipartisan infrastructure deal, calling it "the largest investment in public transit in American history."

"I might add that the largest investment of rail since the creation of Amtrak, you all know I have nothing but affection for Amtrak, having traveled over a million miles on it, commuting every day. But it's a big deal," Biden said today in a speech from the White House. "This agreement is going to create new financing authority that is going to leverage capital on infrastructure and clean energy projects. It will provide folks with good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced. The kind of jobs that provide a middle class life, with a little bit of breathing room."

More on the deal: Biden said earlier Thursday that he had agreed to a deal on infrastructure with a bipartisan group of senators after White House officials and the senators had a massive breakthrough the night before in their infrastructure negotiations.

Both Republican and Democratic senators said Wednesday evening there was an agreement reached with White House officials and 10 senators on a bipartisan infrastructure deal. And on Thursday afternoon, Biden said he had signed off on the agreement.

Watch here:

CNN's Kate Sullivan and Phil Mattingly contributed reporting to this post.

2:38 p.m. ET, June 24, 2021

Biden: Bipartisan infrastructure agreement "will create millions of American jobs"

President Biden said that he was "pleased" to report that a bipartisan agreement was reached on infrastructure with a group of bipartisan senators.

"I said many times before, there's nothing our nation can't do when we decide to do it together. Do it as on nation," Biden said during remarks at the White House.

"I'm pleased to report that a bipartisan group of senators, five Democrats, five Republicans, part of a larger group have come together to enforce an agreement that will create millions of American jobs and modernize our American infrastructure to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century," the President said.

Biden thanked the bipartisan group for working together and for raising ideas and concerns with him and Vice President Kamala Harris.

"We devoted far too much energy on in competing with each other and not nearly enough competing with the rest of the world to win the 21st century. The investments we'll be making as a result of this deal are long overdue. They'll put Americans to work in good-paying jobs, repairing our roads and bridges. They'll deliver high speed internet to every American home, bringing down the price that people pay now for internet service. And it will close the American digital divide," Biden said.

Watch here: