CNN By Lauren Fox and Phil Mattingly May 3, 2021
(CNN) Democrats are engaging in broad, bipartisan conversations on infrastructure as the party weighs seriously whether to break off some of the bipartisan pieces of infrastructure first and tackle the bigger, more ambitious plan later in the summer.
The move comes out of both political necessity and an interest from President Joe Biden himself to give bipartisan talks a serious chance, sources have told CNN. In recent weeks, a handful of Senate moderates, including West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, have signaled they wouldn't move forward with Democratic-only bill without seeing the administration and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill engage seriously with their Republican counterparts. That effort is underway now.
In a narrowly divided Senate where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can't afford to lose a single vote, moving ahead with a smaller bipartisan infrastructure bill before tackling a broader bill that encompasses paid family leave, an extension of the child tax credit and other larger, legacy items may offer Democrats the best chance of giving Biden another legislative victory. While sources have emphasized that no final decisions have been made on the process, aides on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue emphasize that the effort to broker a deal with Republicans is both real and serious. How long it takes and whether it will ultimately be successful is another question entirely.
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