Airport Alert: President Biden and Bipartisan Senate Group Reach Agreement on Infrastructure, But Hurdles Remain
June 24, 2021
Today, President Biden and the bipartisan group of senators known as the G-21 came to an agreement on the size and scope of a five-year, $973 billion infrastructure framework, which includes $579 billion in new spending, $25 billion of which would go to airport infrastructure. The framework also offers new funding sources as potential payfors, but avoids going into further detail, meaning more negotiations will likely be needed. Additionally, while the White House's endorsement of the bipartisan framework provides significant political backing to the proposal, much remains up in the air going forward.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in order to placate the progressive wings of their respective caucuses who have expressed significant concerns with the bipartisan proposal's lack of funding for Democrat priorities, including climate, have agreed to pursue a dual-track approach, which would tie passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bill with that of a much larger reconciliation bill. In fact, Speaker Pelosi has told her members that the House will not vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passes a reconciliation bill that includes large elements of the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. President Biden supports this strategy and has said he will not sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill without a reconciliation bill in tandem.
However, passage of a sweeping reconciliation bill is no sure thing in the Senate. Some Senate progressives have said they will not vote for a bipartisan infrastructure bill unless all 50 members of the Democratic caucus agree to also support a larger reconciliation bill. This means that Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have been instrumental in negotiating the bipartisan agreement announced today and who have also routinely expressed reservations about using the reconciliation process for infrastructure and the costs of broader proposals, would have to provide guarantees that, so far, they have been unwilling to make.
There is also the issue of timing. Majority Leader Schumer has repeatedly said that he aims for July votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and a budget resolution before Congress recesses in August, which is an ambitious timeline to say the least. On just the bipartisan framework, alone, turning it into actual legislative text, passing it through all committees of jurisdiction and getting it through a likely contentious floor process would be a monumental task. But, for the Senate to do all of that, while at the same time, steering a separate, multi-trillion-dollar budget resolution to final passage in only four weeks, will be incredibly difficult. Additionally, Congress has a myriad of other priorities it plans to address during this same period, including appropriations, police reform, the debt ceiling and voting reform.
All of this to say that while today's announcement is an important step to the potential passage of an infrastructure package, a long road remains ahead, with nothing completely set in stone – including the $25 billion in new spending for airport infrastructure. It is critical that airports continue their outreach to their Congressional delegations to ensure that airport priorities remain part of any eventual infrastructure package. We urge you to highlight specific projects and priorities at your airports that would benefit from additional federal funding and/or additional PFC flexibility.
Today, President Biden and the bipartisan group of senators known as the G-21 came to an agreement on the size and scope of a five-year, $973 billion infrastructure framework, which includes $579 billion in new spending, $25 billion of which would go to airport infrastructure. The framework also offers new funding sources as potential payfors, but avoids going into further detail, meaning more negotiations will likely be needed. Additionally, while the White House's endorsement of the bipartisan framework provides significant political backing to the proposal, much remains up in the air going forward.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in order to placate the progressive wings of their respective caucuses who have expressed significant concerns with the bipartisan proposal's lack of funding for Democrat priorities, including climate, have agreed to pursue a dual-track approach, which would tie passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bill with that of a much larger reconciliation bill. In fact, Speaker Pelosi has told her members that the House will not vote on a bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate passes a reconciliation bill that includes large elements of the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. President Biden supports this strategy and has said he will not sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill without a reconciliation bill in tandem.
However, passage of a sweeping reconciliation bill is no sure thing in the Senate. Some Senate progressives have said they will not vote for a bipartisan infrastructure bill unless all 50 members of the Democratic caucus agree to also support a larger reconciliation bill. This means that Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who have been instrumental in negotiating the bipartisan agreement announced today and who have also routinely expressed reservations about using the reconciliation process for infrastructure and the costs of broader proposals, would have to provide guarantees that, so far, they have been unwilling to make.
There is also the issue of timing. Majority Leader Schumer has repeatedly said that he aims for July votes on both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and a budget resolution before Congress recesses in August, which is an ambitious timeline to say the least. On just the bipartisan framework, alone, turning it into actual legislative text, passing it through all committees of jurisdiction and getting it through a likely contentious floor process would be a monumental task. But, for the Senate to do all of that, while at the same time, steering a separate, multi-trillion-dollar budget resolution to final passage in only four weeks, will be incredibly difficult. Additionally, Congress has a myriad of other priorities it plans to address during this same period, including appropriations, police reform, the debt ceiling and voting reform.
All of this to say that while today's announcement is an important step to the potential passage of an infrastructure package, a long road remains ahead, with nothing completely set in stone – including the $25 billion in new spending for airport infrastructure. It is critical that airports continue their outreach to their Congressional delegations to ensure that airport priorities remain part of any eventual infrastructure package. We urge you to highlight specific projects and priorities at your airports that would benefit from additional federal funding and/or additional PFC flexibility.
