CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Joe Biden met with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., at the White House on Monday as part of the president’s efforts to build a consensus on an infrastructure plan.
“President Biden and I had a productive and thorough meeting,” Manchin said in a statement Monday evening. “I can assure you his priority — like mine — is doing good for every American and West Virginian.”
The Biden administration in March unveiled the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, which includes $621 billion for transportation infrastructure, $111 billion for water system upgrades, and $100 billion for high-speed broadband. The plan also dedicates funding for economic and workforce development.
Senate Republicans, led by West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, have pitched a $568 billion alternative framework, which includes $299 billion for roads and bridges, $35 billion for drinking water and wastewater systems, and $65 billion for broadband improvements.
The plans would be funded differently; Biden has proposed increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% as well as other changes to the tax code, while Republicans support user fee adjustments and utilizing unspent federal dollars. Republicans supported lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% in the 2017 tax bill.
Manchin has spoken against increasing the corporate tax rate to 28%, and instead supports setting the level to 25%. The senator has also suggested Congress address infrastructure “step by step.”
“There is not a greater common cause than infrastructure,” he said of the Biden Administration following an April infrastructure summit in Annapolis, Maryland. “If we can’t come together on infrastructure in the most toxic atmosphere we’ve had in Washington, then we’re in trouble.”
Biden also met Monday with Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Capito serves as the committee’s ranking member.
Capito and Republican colleagues will meet with Biden on Thursday to discuss infrastructure legislation. POLITICO on Monday reported Republicans appear willing to back a proposal with a larger price tag than the current framework.