Hopes High Biden Will Shift Infrastructure Focus Toward Hill Deal

“We’re going to have a president” next year who will “set the tone on infrastructure funding” in a way that makes progress more likely, said Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. “That’s going to matter a lot. And once that agenda is set,” lawmakers can be more confident in negotiating on a deal. Last week, Biden cited universal broadband access and infrastructure spending as a priority (see 2011160055).

“Now that the smoke from the election has started to clear a bit, I’m hoping” the “atmospherics improve” and “both parties can find middle ground” on infrastructure, said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. “That’s been a priority for both sides for some time. The question always comes down to how you pay for it, and I suspect that’ll continue to be a part of the discussion” in the next Congress.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and other Democratic leaders are planning how to work with the incoming Biden administration to advance infrastructure spending and are eyeing their Moving Forward Act (HR-2) as a template. HR-2, which the House passed in July, includes $100 billion in broadband and next-generation 911 funding (see 2007010071). The measure stalled in the Senate.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., told reporters he “absolutely” expects Biden to be a major force in moving on infrastructure spending, but Republican opposition will likely continue. His House Rural Broadband Task Force played a major role in shaping HR-2’s telecom spending proposal (see 2006240073), which he also separately filed as the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (HR-7302).

House Commerce

The three Republican contenders to succeed Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon as House Commerce Committee ranking member (see 2011180028) told us they remain interested in continuing to work with Democrats on an infrastructure deal.

“There's a recognition that we need to pass an infrastructure package,” and “whatever we pass, I believe a broadband provision will be included and must be included,” said House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranker Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. She and the other candidates tempered that interest by noting their ongoing concerns about the level of spending Democrats propose in HR-2.

It’s “important” that an infrastructure package “gets done” because it’s an issue that “people across my district, and also across the state of Ohio,” are pushing for, said Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio. He’s concerned that talks on infrastructure legislation will stall, much like they did for “the two last COVID bills, when” Pelosi “said 'Take it or leave it.' And that's not the way we negotiate.”

Improvements to broadband and other infrastructure remain “acute needs” everywhere, but “I'm reluctant to say ‘Oh, yeah, sure, let's do infrastructure,’ because that's what you always hear” from lawmakers, said House Health Subcommittee ranking member Michael Burgess, R-Texas. It’s always touted as a way “we can work together to build something for the good of the American people. And then it doesn't happen and you look a little foolish for having supported it one more time.” There “will be room for some compromise” because “I can't think that anyone is happy with the very weak work product that has been turned in with this Congress” on infrastructure, Burgess said. House Democrats' "narrower majority” in the next Congress “may force us to work together” in a way “we hadn't had to before.”

Possibilities

Biden’s accession to the presidency will “change the dynamic on infrastructure in a very substantial way,” said Internet Innovation Alliance honorary Chairman Rick Boucher, a Democratic ex-House Communications chairman from Virginia. Biden “made infrastructure investment a major priority over the course of his campaign.” That’s a departure from Trump, who “has occasionally paid lip service” to it as an issue “but really hasn’t done anything substantial,” Boucher said. Trump in March noted interest in pursuing $2 trillion in infrastructure spending as part of COVID-19 legislation (see 2003310070).

“I’ve always thought it was interesting” to consider “how different these past four years would have been if” the Trump administration and Congress made work on an infrastructure deal “a high priority,” said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Broadband and Spectrum Policy Director Doug Brake. Biden “is a consummate dealmaker who’s willing to reach across the aisle,” so his administration has the potential to be very “different” from Trump’s in seeking compromises. Infrastructure, “and particularly rural broadband,” spending is widely viewed as a “bipartisan opportunity” for agreement in a divided Congress, so it seems like a natural “first area of opportunity,” Brake said.

“There was some hope at the beginning” of this Congress that split control would spur Republicans and Democrats to want to make a deal, but “that didn’t happen,” said Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen. That was partly due to lawmakers narrowing their focus to issues directly addressing the pandemic, like trying to expand E-rate funding. Lawmakers now view infrastructure spending as a way to jump-start the economic recovery amid the health crisis, and the incoming Biden administration is “really going to want to see if it can make some significant broadband infrastructure investments” as early as it can, “because they will want to see the benefits of that” money before the 2022 election, Windhausen said.

Venable’s Mike Bloomquist, former House Commerce GOP staff director, cautioned that reaching an infrastructure deal isn’t easy, even when a party controls Congress and the White House. Republicans thought after Trump’s 2016 election, when they controlled both chambers, “we were going to get a big infrastructure package,” Bloomquist recalled. “Instead, the old chestnut of ‘Infrastructure Week’ kept coming around" and a legislative deal never materialized. Congress' looming debate over reauthorizing the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which must be done by Sept. 30, will provide “an interesting vehicle” for infrastructure funding, he said: How “you pay for it” will remain a major hurdle.