白宫周二坚称，在通过乔·拜登总统的法案时，存在一条“两党共同前进的道路”庞大而昂贵的基础设施计划但是如果他得不到共和党的支持，他的努力就会得到很大的推动。
参议院民主党人正着眼于利用快速预算和解进程的另一个用途，以使该措施获得通过。此前，该机构神秘规则的无党派仲裁者参议院议员周一晚上表示，参议院民主党人可以第二次使用这一工具，推进拜登的议程，就像他们推进他的新冠肺炎纾困计划一样。
参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)的发言人周一发表声明称，“尚未决定”民主党是否会在没有共和党支持的情况下试图推动该计划通过，但和解仍是一种选择。
这位发言人说:“这证实了领导人对预算法案的解释，并允许民主党人在共和党人继续阻挠的情况下，使用额外的工具来改善美国人的生活。”
白宫新闻秘书珍·普萨基(Jen Psaki)周二在她的每日简报会上表示，是否走这条路应由国会领导人决定，但与此同时，拜登正专注于让议员们获得支持，并指出白宫将在下周邀请议员们。
“和解是国会通过预算法案的一种机制，”普萨基说。“我们将把机制和机制的决定留给国会领导人，但现在，在他宣布美国就业计划不到一周之后，我们的重点是与民主党人和共和党人、工作人员、委员会工作人员接触，邀请成员下周到白宫，我们对就一揽子计划的组成部分发表的一些声明感到鼓舞，我们可以在这些声明中找到一致意见。”
和解是由1974年的国会预算法案建立的，它加速了国会改变与收入或税收、直接支出和债务限额有关的法律的能力。
这位议员的裁决是在民主党人提出《国会预算法》第304节赋予参议院利用和解修改2021财年和未来财年预算的能力的论点之后做出的。这位议员的裁决给了他们这个强大的程序工具的另外两个用途。
民主党此前曾在3月份利用预算和解通过拜登的美国救援计划，并认为他们只能再使用一次令人困惑和担忧的立法策略。当时，民主党对预算和解的使用受到了抨击，特别是来自共和党的批评，他们批评缺乏两党谈判，参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)在3月初表示，民主党正在“利用”这一工具。
麦康奈尔说:“因此，我们认为这个方案应该像前五项法案一样，在两党的基础上进行谈判。”“取而代之的是，新政府有意识地做出了阻挠我们的决定，一方这样做只是为了利用和解进程，试图实现一大堆与新冠肺炎完全无关的其他项目。”
共和党人还利用2017年的预算和解获得通过全面减税由前总统唐纳德·特朗普提议。
拜登的基础设施计划，以及民主党可能再次在国会推动立法的暗示，已经受到共和党领导人的抨击。上周，麦康奈尔批评基础设施建设计划和民主党在没有共和党支持的情况下前进。
“整个辩论强调了我认为两党之间的主要区别，”麦康奈尔说。“新政府及其在众议院和参议院中非常、非常微弱的多数，尽管如此，仍然是大胆和大胆的。它主要包括两件事:更高的税收和更多的债务。
为了再次利用预算和解，民主党人必须在基础设施计划上达成完全共识，以利用他们在参议院50-50的微弱多数。截至目前，民主党人很难实现这种团结，因为弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)已经宣布，他对提高公司税率的提议有意见，该提议将为这项雄心勃勃的法案提供资金。
“由于该法案今天已经存在，它需要改变，”曼钦星期一说。“这项法案将不会是你所看到的那种形式，也不会是人们谈论的那种形式。”
曼钦还暗示，他并不是唯一一个对该法案持保留意见的人，他说，“还有六七名其他民主党人对此有非常强烈的感受。”
Biden's infrastructure plan, with no GOP support, gets boost from Senate 'reconciliation' ruling
The White House on Tuesday insisted that there is a "bipartisan path forward" on passing President Joe Biden'ssweeping and costly infrastructure plan, but it comes as his effort got a major boost if he gets no Republican support.
Senate Democrats are eyeing another use of the fast-track budget reconciliation process to get the measure passed after the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan arbiter of the body's arcane rules, said Monday night that Senate Democrats could use the tool for a second time to move Biden's agenda forward as they did with his COVID-19 relief package.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's spokesman released a statement on Monday saying that "no decision has been made" whether Democrats would try to push the plan through without any GOP backing but that reconciliation remains an option.
"This confirms the leader’s interpretation of the Budget Act and allows Democrats additional tools to improve the lives of Americans if Republican obstruction continues," the spokesman said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing Tuesday that it's up to congressional leaders to decide whether to go that route, but that in the meantime Biden is focused on engaging lawmakers to build support, noting that the White House is inviting lawmakers over next week.
"Reconciliation is a mechanism for passing budgetary bills in Congress," Psaki said. "We will leave the mechanisms and the determination of the mechanisms to the leaders in Congress, but right now, less then a week after he announced the American Jobs Plan, our focus is on engaging with Democrats and Republicans, with staff, with committee staff, inviting members to the White House next week, and we are encouraged by some of the statements that have been made about components of the package where we could find agreement."
Reconciliation was created by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and it expedites Congress' ability to change laws relating to revenue or taxes, direct spending and debt limits.
The parliamentarian's ruling comes after Democrats made the argument that Section 304 in the Congressional Budget Act gives Senate the ability to use reconciliation to revise the budget for the 2021 fiscal year and for future fiscal years. The parliamentarian's ruling gives them two more uses of the powerful procedural tool.
Democrats previously used budget reconciliation to pass Biden's American Rescue Plan in March, and believed they only had one more use of the confusing and fraught legislative maneuver. At the time, the Democrat's use of budget reconciliation came under fire, especially from Republicans who criticized the lack of bipartisan negotiations, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in early March that Democrats were "taking advantage" of the tool.
"So we think this package should have been negotiated on a bipartisan basis like the last five bills were done," McConnell said. "Instead the new administration made a conscious decision to jam us, to do it one party only to take advantage of the reconciliation process to try to achieve a whole lot of other items completely unrelated to COVID-19."
Republicans also used budget reconciliation in 2017 to passsweeping tax cutsproposed by former President Donald Trump.
Biden's infrastructure plan, and the hint that Democrats may once again ram the legislation through Congress, has already come under fire from GOP leaders. Last week, McConnell criticized the infrastructure package and the Democrats for going forward without Republican support.
"This whole debate underscores I think the principal difference between the two parties," McConnell said. "This new administration and its very, very narrow majority in the House and its 50-50 Senate, nevertheless is bold and audacious. It involves principally two things: higher taxes and more debt."
To use budget reconciliation again, Democrats would have to reach total consensus on the infrastructure plan to use their narrow majority in the 50-50 split Senate. As of now, that unity is looking difficult for Democrats to achieve as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has already announced that he has problems with the proposed increased corporate tax rate which would fund the ambitious bill.
"As the bill exists today, it needs to be changed," Manchin said Monday. "This bill will not be in the same form you've seen it introduced or seen people talking about it."
Manchin also hinted that he is not alone in his reservations about the bill, saying that "there are six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this."
