Biden turns focus to next priority with infrastructure talks

[DonViejo]

BY MORGAN CHALFANT AND ALEX GANGITANO - 03/05/21 06:00 AM EST

President Biden is starting to look beyond coronavirus relief to his next legislative fight, preparing to lay out a recovery package that makes significant investments in rebuilding U.S. infrastructure.

Biden met with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for over an hour on Thursday afternoon, his second bipartisan meeting with the group over the past month.

The president is expected to lay out his “Build Back Better” recovery plan sometime after the Senate passes its $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which the chamber took up on Thursday and could pass by the weekend. While the White House has been mum on details of the recovery plan, it’s likely to at least partly mirror the $2 trillion infrastructure and climate proposal he laid out on the campaign trail and include a hefty investment in infrastructure to spur job creation.

Lawmakers from both parties described Thursday’s meeting as productive, though it remains to be seen whether Biden can use his legislative chops to usher in bipartisan cooperation on major legislation. Former President Trump ran on a plan to invest substantially in upgrading America’s infrastructure but never followed through with the push while in office. “Infrastructure week” became a punch line.

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https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/541736-biden-turns-focus-to-next-priority-with-infrastructure-talks