By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – According to a Central Illinois Congressman, Republicans are prepared to work with Democrats and President Joe Biden to pass an infrastructure bill.
However, an infrastructure bill remains at a standstill, as Democrats, who control the Senate and House of Representatives, continue to work out the details in the House.
Republican Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap) said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and House Democrats “can’t agree on anything.”
“They have this $3.5 trillion bill that their progressive socialists are demanding to get done, and they’re holding everything else hostage…As you’ve seen, there’s real infighting between the progressives and the socialists and the more moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kristin Semina.
Listen, Republicans are willing to work with the Democrats and (President) Biden on a hard infrastructure bill that funds roads and bridges and rural broadband, but not this social infrastructure, human infrastructure, and that’s really where we’re at – we’re at a stalemate.”
On Monday, House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats have imposed a deadline of Oct. 31 to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a broader investment in social programs.
“We’re talking about, remember there are two different bills,” LaHood told WJBC’s, Scott Miller. “The social infrastructure bill or the human infrastructure bill the $3.5 (trillion) that raises taxes on everyone, I’m not supportive. On the hard infrastructure bill, which is, it funds roads and bridges and rail systems and airports and rural broadbands. I mean, 19 Republican Senators supported it in the U.S. Senate. It is a bipartisan bill.
The problem is, (Speaker) Pelosi has said you are not going to vote on that hard infrastructure bill unless we have the social infrastructure bill, which again is an entitlement bill.”
During a visit to capital hill late last week, President Biden said the Democratic party is going “to get it done.”
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
