President Joe Biden invited a bipartisan group of senators to meet with them at the White House on Thursday after a potential breakthrough agreement on a “framework” for an infrastructure deal.
Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced they had reached the beginnings of an agreement Wednesday evening. The meeting, which included five Republican senators, five Democratic senators and several top White house officials, will continue with Biden at the White House on Thursday.
“I’m optimistic that we’ve had a breakthrough,” Collins told reporters Wednesday evening. (RELATED: Wait A Second, Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Calls For Tearing Down Highways?)
“We came to an agreement on the plan that we have, and it’s just a matter of trying to wrap it up tomorrow,” Manchin said.
The White House has not released a specific time for the meeting, though Biden is scheduled to visit North Carolina later in the day. The potential deal would reportedly cost a total of roughly $1.2 trillion, down from Biden’s original $2.3 trillion package.
Biden started these negotiations with a $2 trillion infrastructure proposal.
Tonight, White House aides have reportedly agreed to a framework with $579 billion in new spending.https://t.co/lQdERbkh1n
— Sam Stein (@samstein) June 24, 2021
Biden and Republicans have repeatedly gone back and forth on potential infrastructure deals, with talks stalling out a number of times.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a statement saying the Wednesday meetings were far more productive than past talks, however. (RELATED: Biden Took Out Bridge Money, Left In Liberal Wish List, Then Called It A ‘Counter Offer’ To Republicans)
“White House senior staff had two productive meetings today with the bipartisan group of Senators who have been negotiating about infrastructure. The group made progress towards an outline of a potential agreement, and the President has invited the group to come to the White House tomorrow to discuss this in person,” the statement read.