Bringing an end to the infrastructure plan’s negotiations, the lead GOP negotiator said that President Joe Biden‘s talks with Republicans have collapsed on Tuesday. Weeks of negotiations between the White House and Republicans failed to bring the two parties close to a deal.
“I spoke with the president this afternoon, and he ended our infrastructure negotiations,” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, said in a statement released on Twitter.
Additionally, the end of talks will increase pressure on Democrats to pass the sweeping package using a special process, which doesn’t require any Republican votes.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that as negotiations “seem to be running into a brick wall,” Democrats are “pursuing a two-path proposal” that includes focusing on new talks between a group of senators from both parties.
“So that’s good. But that’s not going to be the only answer. We all know as a caucus we will not be able to do all the things that the country needs in a bipartisan way. So at the same time, we are pursuing the pursuit of reconciliation,” Schumer said, referring to the process of passing legislation with a simple majority in the Senate, which Democrats used to advance the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief law.
“It may well be that part of the bill that’ll pass will be bipartisan and part of it will be through reconciliation. But we’re not going to sacrifice the bigness and boldness in this bill,” he said, according to ABC News reports.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at the Democratic party and said, “the American people expect a 50-50 Senate to spend its time finding common ground. Multiple times this year, we’ve come together to take bipartisan steps on serious issues. But this month, that’s coming to a screeching halt. Senate Democrats’ June agenda is designed to fail.”