Senator Rob Portman says that is glad the bipartisan infrastructure deal that he has been working on will not be tied to another spending bill.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden and a group of Republican and Democratic senators announced a deal had been reached in the nearly 1 trillion dollar deal which would make improvements to roads, bridges, and expand broadband access. The next day, the President says he wouldn’t sign the bill unless an over one trillion dollar reconciliation bill for child care health care, and education was also passed with it. He has since retracted that statement. Portman says he was blindsided by the President’s comments about the two bills being connected, which wasn’t discussed during the talks.
“So it was a surprise to say the least that those two got linked, and I’m glad they’ve been delinked, and it’s very clear that we can move forward with a bipartisan bill that’s broadly popular not just among members of Congress but the American people," says Portman. "Over 87 percent of people, we’re told by one poll, believe we ought to do a bipartisan infrastructure bill because it’s needed. Our roads and bridges are in tough shape, our ports, our rail system, our grid, our broadband system need to be expanded. These are things that people are looking for. So we were glad to see them disconnected and now we can move forward on something that really makes sense for the American people.”
If the infrastructure bill is passed, Portman says it will help fix the country’s crumbling roads and bridges which has received low grades compared to the rest of the world.
