华盛顿——尽管白宫继续与共和党人就一项规模更大、规模更小的1万亿美元提案进行谈判，但民主党领导人越来越没有耐心，他们正在为乔·拜登总统的大规模就业和家庭基础设施计划奠定基础。

一名白宫高级顾问在周二的闭门会议上向众议院民主党人保证，下周将对与共和党人的谈判进行新的评估。但参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)宣布，他将继续前进。周三，他与参议院预算委员会(Senate Budget Committee)私下会面，为7月份关于多数规则的投票做准备。与此同时，谨慎的民主党人准备取消拜登的17亿美元美国就业计划和18亿美元美国家庭计划，以获得通过。

舒默和众议院议长南希·佩洛西正试图平息焦虑的普通民主党人的担忧，即拜登在与共和党人的谈判中留下了太多的余地。不安的立法者希望得到保证，如果他们与共和党人一起对一项缩减的法案做出让步，这不会是最后的决定，总统对气候变化战略、儿童保育中心和其他民主党优先事项的投资将继续推进——无论有没有共和党的投票。

美联社(Associated Press)获得的一份私人核心会议的部分文字记录显示，白宫顾问史蒂夫·里奇蒂(Steve Ricchetti)周二表示:“经过一周或10天的更多对话和谈判后，我们将看看我们会去哪里。”

更新的时间表正值拜登在海外期间，他的首要立法任务是在国会摇摆不定。总统和众议院和参议院的民主党领导人一直在采取双轨战略——与共和党达成两党协议，但也为潜在的多数规则战略奠定基础，以防谈判失败。

过去一周，一个由10名参议员组成的两党小组已经在一项近1万亿美元的协议上取得了进展，该协议主要涉及道路、公路和其他传统基础设施项目，但没有对儿童保育中心和其他设施进行与家庭相关的投资。里奇蒂周二坚持认为，儿童保育中心和其他设施仍然是政府的首要任务。共和党人拒绝这些投资，认为代价高昂且没有必要。

密歇根州参议员黛比·斯塔贝诺(Debbie Stabenow)说:“问问一位工作的母亲，儿童保育是否是她家庭基础设施的一部分。问问一个有年迈父母的家庭，如果家庭保育是基础设施，他们需要帮助才能安全地生活在家里。我们理解这一点。”

周二，两党参议员小组的成员在闭门参议院午餐上向他们的同事介绍了这一新出现的提议，并受到了褒贬不一的评价。

由五名民主党人和五名共和党人组成的两党小组的努力在满足拜登的最初想法方面取得了很大进展，但参议员和总统在如何为该计划付费方面仍然存在很大分歧。

共和党人拒绝了总统将公司税率从21%提高到28%的提议，以支付基础设施投资，或者增加美国富人的税收..

相反，根据两党的提议，这些项目将通过提高加油站缴纳的汽油税来获得资金，方法是将汽油税与通胀挂钩，利用未使用的新冠肺炎救助基金，并试图收回未缴纳的所得税。

“人们乐观地认为我们实际上可以完成一些事情，”共和党参议员约翰·巴拉索在午餐会议上说。

但提高燃油税的前景非常不受一些民主党议员的欢迎，这与拜登拒绝对年收入低于40万美元的人增税相呼应。

参议院财政委员会主席罗恩·怀登称这是“对劳动人民的又一次打击”

“对我来说，他们的想法是，他们将提高劳动人民的税收，同时让跨国公司和最富有的美国人摆脱困境，这是不可行的，”威登说。“我是说，这有什么公平可言?”

拜登还面临民主党人的质疑，他们希望看到对应对气候变化战略的大力投资——电动汽车充电站、支持社区应对恶劣天气条件的资金以及公共交通资金，这些都是许多农村州共和党人反对的，并在两党计划中被大幅削减。

马萨诸塞州参议员埃德·马基说:“必须有一个保证，一个绝对牢不可破的保证，即气候将是我们达成的任何基础设施协议的核心。”

“我们不能让我们的星球失望，”参议员杰夫·默克莱说。“这必须是交易的一部分。″

白宫计划在评估下一步措施之前，再给两党基础设施谈判一周至10天的时间，但坚称最新一轮谈判没有最后期限。

副新闻秘书安德鲁·贝茨(Andrew Bates)表示，里切蒂向议员们传达了这样的信息:“我们肯定会在未来一周至10天内了解基础设施谈判的总体情况，然后我们可以进行总体评估。但他没有设定最后期限或截止日期。

民主党众议员约翰·亚尔穆特。众议院预算委员会(House Budget Committee)主席比尔·盖茨(full steam)表示，如果两党谈判破裂，该计划将在7月份根据特殊的和解规则“全力推进”考虑一项一揽子计划，该规则将使大多数人能够在不需要共和党投票的情况下通过。

参议院以50票对50票的微弱优势分裂，民主党人怀疑至少有10名共和党人会加入进来，达到60票的门槛，以推动大多数立法通过阻挠议案。民主党人正在推动使用预算和解规则，该规则将允许参议院以51票的简单多数通过，副总统卡玛拉•哈里斯可以充当平局决胜者。

众议院预算委员会正在准备的一揽子计划将包括美国就业计划和美国家庭计划。这些是拜登雄心勃勃的提议，不仅要修建道路和高速公路，还要修建所谓的儿童保育、退伍军人护理和教育设施等人类基础设施。

据一名不愿透露姓名的民主党高级助手透露，舒默将于周三召集预算委员会的民主党参议员开会，敦促他们团结在“统一预算”的周围，讨论私人会议。

舒默将指示小组中的11名民主党参议员确保关键的气候和护理部分纳入框架，包括到2030年将美国电力排放减少80%的计划。

众议院民主党核心小组主席、众议员哈基姆·杰弗里斯(Hakeem Jeffries)表示:“白宫向我们明确表示，我们应该准备在两条轨道上前进。”“我们准备尽一切努力让美国就业计划越过终点线。”

Impatient Democrats prepare to go-it-alone on infrastructure

WASHINGTON -- Patience running thin, Democratic leaders are laying the groundwork for a go-it-alone approach on President Joe Biden's big jobs and families infrastructure plans even as the White House continues negotiating with Republicans on a much more scaled-back $1 trillion proposal.

A top White House adviser assured House Democrats during a closed-door session Tuesday that there would be a fresh assessment by next week on where talks stand with the Republicans. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he is moving ahead, huddling privately Wednesday with the Senate Budget Committee to prepare for July votes on a majority-rules approach as wary Democrats prepare to lift Biden's $1.7 billion American Jobs Plan and $1.8 billion American Families Plan to passage.

Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are trying to calm worries from anxious rank-and-file Democrats that Biden is leaving too much on the table in talks with Republicans. Restless lawmakers want assurances that if they concede to a scaled-back bill with Republicans, it won't be the last word and the president's push for investments in climate change strategies, child care centers and other Democratic priorities will proceed — with or without GOP votes.

“We’ll see where we’re going to go after a week or 10 days (of) more dialogue and negotiation,” White House counselor Steve Ricchetti said Tuesday, according to a partial transcript of the private caucus meeting obtained by The Associated Press.

The updated timeline comes as Biden's top legislative priority is teetering in Congress while he is overseas. The president and the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have been engaged in a two-track strategy — reaching for a bipartisan deal with Republicans but also setting the stage for a potential majority-rules strategy in case talks fail.

Over the past week, a bipartisan group of 10 senators has narrowed in on a nearly $1 trillion deal of mainly road, highway and other traditional infrastructure projects, but without the family-related investments in child care centers and other facilities that Ricchetti insisted Tuesday remains a top priority for the administration. Republicans reject those investments as costly and unnecessary.

“Just ask a working mom if child care is part of her family's infrastructure,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. "Ask a family with an aging parent who needs help to live at home safely if home care is infrastructure. We understand that it is."

On Tuesday, the members of the bipartisan group of senators presented the emerging proposal to their colleagues at closed-door Senate lunches and were met with mixed reviews.

The effort by the bipartisan group, five Democrats and five Republicans, has come far in meeting Biden’s initial ideas, but the senators and the president remain wide apart over how to pay for the plan.

Republicans have rejected the president's proposal to raise the corporate tax rate, from 21% to 28%, to pay for infrastructure investments, or to increase taxes on wealthy Americans..

Instead, under the bipartisan proposal, the projects would be funded by increasing the gas tax paid at the pump by linking it to inflation, tapping unspent COVID-19 relief funds and trying to recoup unpaid income taxes.

“People were optimistic we could actually get something done,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., emerging from the lunch meeting.

But the prospect of raising the gas tax is highly unpopular with some Democratic lawmakers, echoing Biden's refusal to raise taxes on people earning less than $400,000 a year.

Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, described it as “another hit on working people.”

“To me, their idea that they’re going to raise taxes on working people while letting multinational companies and the most wealthy Americans off the hook is a nonstarter,” Wyden said. “I mean, where is the fairness in that?”

Biden is also facing skepticism from Democrats who want to see robust investments in strategies to fight climate change — for electric vehicle charging stations, money to bolster communities' response to harsh weather conditions and funds for public transit that many rural state Republicans oppose and that have been dramatically reduced in the bipartisan plan.

“There has to be a guarantee, an absolute unbreakable guarantee, that climate is going to be at the center of any infrastructure deal that we cut," said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass.

“We cannot let our planet down,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “This has to be part of the deal.″

The White House plans to give the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations another week to 10 days before assessing the next steps, but insisted there was no deadline to this latest round of talks.

Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said that Ricchetti conveyed to the lawmakers that "we are certainly going to know where things stand on infrastructure talks generally in the next week to 10 days, and that we can then take stock overall. But he did not set a deadline or cutoff.”

Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., the House Budget Committee chair, said the plan is, if bipartisan talks falter, to move “full steam ahead” on considering a package as soon as July under special reconciliation rules that would enable majority passage without the need for Republican votes.

With the Senate narrowly split, 50-50, Democrats are skeptical at least 10 Republicans will join to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance most legislation over a filibuster. Democrats are pushing to use budget reconciliation rules that would allow passage on a simple majority vote of 51 votes in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to serve as a tiebreaker.

The package being prepared by the House Budget Committee would include both the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. These are Biden’s ambitious proposals to build not just roads and highways, but also the so-called human infrastructure of child care, veterans care and education facilities.

Schumer will convene a meeting Wednesday of the Democratic senators on the Budget Committee, urging them to rally around a “Unity Budget,” according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private session.

Schumer will instruct the 11 Democratic senators on the panel to ensure that key climate and care-giving components are included in the framework — including a plan to reduce U.S. electricity emissions by 80% by 2030.

“The White House made it clear to us that we should be prepared to proceed on two tracks,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus. “We’re prepared to do what is necessary to get the American Jobs Plan over the finish line.”