Summary
Infrastructure
The Biden Administration continues to leave the door open to a bipartisan infrastructure package, despite making only little progress on its pay-fors. President Joe Biden rejected Republican’s $928 billion counteroffer, but will meet again with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) later today. Notably, Biden offered to forgo the corporate tax hike, and instead increase the global minimum tax.
| White House | Senate Republicans | ||||
| March 31 | May 21 | June 2 | April 23 | May 27 | |
| Size | $2.25 trillion | $1.7 trillion | $568 billion | $928 billion | |
| Pay-Fors | March 31 | May 21 | |||
| Increase corporate tax rate to 28 percent (up from 21 percent), other tax reforms | No corporate tax increase; increase the global minimum tax rate to 15 percent (up from 10.5 percent) and increase tax enforcement | Implement user fees (e.g., electric vehicles), repurpose appropriated federal funds (e.g., coronavirus relief) | |||
| Scope | Traditional infrastructure and nontraditional infrastructure (including home health, housing, schools, research and development, manufacturing) in American Jobs Plan | Traditional infrastructure only | |||
The President’s latest concession raises some questions about whether the elusive bipartisan deal would even include the nontraditional infrastructure components of the American Jobs Plan. Perhaps out of concern that these pieces may be excluded, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called on her colleagues to host events in their districts to build support for the American Jobs Plan (AJP) and American Families Plan (AFP) as part of the Care Economy Week of Action (June 7-13). They will highlight proposals aimed at supporting parents and caregivers – including:
- $400 billion to expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) under Medicaid and increase hourly wages for home care workers (in AJP);
- $225 billion to establish a national paid family and medical leave program (in AFP); and
- $225 billion to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care (in AFP).
Meanwhile, House Democrats will begin marking up their own infrastructure legislation. On Wednesday (June 9), the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will markup the newly introduced Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act – a $547 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill, which includes core components of the American Jobs Plan (fact sheet).
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget Hearings
As outlined in the calendar below, committees in both chambers will hold hearings to question Administration officials about their FY 2022 funding requests. Shalanda Young, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, will appear before the House and Senate Budget Committees, the committees tasked with drafting the budget resolution and its reconciliation instructions. The House Appropriations Committee is slated to begin markups for FY 2022 spending bills on June 24.
Three congressional committees – House Ways and Means Committee, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education, and Senate Finance Committee – will press Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier on the President’s $1.7 trillion request for HHS (WHG summary). With Becerra in the hot seat, lawmakers may also ask him about the Administration’s plan to lower prescription drug costs (an issue discussed only at a high-level in the budget request); surprise medical billing implementation; COVID-19 response; among other issues. On the HHS budget, Becerra had appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in early May (WHG summary).
HHS Nomination Hearings: ASPR, SAMHSA
Tomorrow, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will convene a hearing to discuss the nominations of Dawn O’Connell to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Miriam Delphin-Rittmon to be Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use. Both served during the Obama Administration.
- O’Connell currently serves as the Senior Counselor to the Secretary for COVID-19, and previously served as the Director of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation’s (CEPI) US Office and a Senior Counselor to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell
- Delphin-Rittmon is currently the Commissioner of the Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and previously served as a Senior Advisor Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in 2012–2014.