WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A lead Republican negotiator on an infrastructure deal on Sunday welcomed President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of his threat to veto a $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill unless a separate Democratic spending plan also passes Congress.
Senator Rob Portman said he and his fellow negotiators were “blindsided” by Biden’s comments on Thursday after he and senators announced a rare bipartisan compromise on a measure to fix the nation’s roads, bridges and ports.
“I was very glad to see the president clarify his remarks because it was inconsistent with everything that we had been told all along the way,” Portman said in an interview with ABC.
Moments after announcing the bipartisan deal on Thursday, Biden appeared to put it in jeopardy with his comment that the infrastructure bill would have to move “in tandem” with a larger bill that includes a host of Democratic priorities that he hopes to pass along party lines.
He said of the infrastructure bill on Thursday that “if this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it.” The comments had put internal party pressure on the 11 Republicans in the group of 21 senators who endorsed the infrastructure package to abandon the agreement.
The Democratic president issued a statement on Saturday that essentially withdrew that threat, saying that was never his intent.
“We were glad to see them disconnected and now we can move forward,” Portman said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
