Appearing on MSNBC’s “Live with Alex Witt” this past Sunday, Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D) addressed the recent $2 trillion “infrastructure” proposal President Joe Biden has put forward, as well as the Senate Republican counterproposal that falls far short of the amount Democrats have recently been pushing for.
Rep. Murphy, chairwoman of the House Blue Dog Coalition, doesn’t go as far as to dismiss the Republican proposal of $568 billion, however, she does say that the country is “way behind on infrastructure investments” and that the GOP measure “may not go far enough for the needs that exists in all of our communities.”“Look, I welcome Republican willingness to engage in negotiations. I, like many others, want to do this in a bipartisan way because I believe bipartisan legislation is more durable and provides stability and predictability for the American people. But we also have to recognize that we are way behind on infrastructure investments,” said Rep. Murphy.” The proposal they have put up may not go far enough for the needs that exist in all of our communities. I want to do bold things in a bipartisan way because inaction isn't an option, but there are a lot of pathways for us to make the necessary investments, whether it's through the appropriations process or through this larger infrastructure bill. And then let's also be very clear.
Murphy’s assertion that the Republican measure “may not go far enough,” could signal that she is willing to support the Biden proposal in its entirety if Republicans can’t come to a compromise with Democrats.
President Biden and Democrats have been saying that just about everything from school to roads should be considered as infrastructure, but some more moderate Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin, have sided with the Republican counterproposal and believe that Democrats are packing the bill with too many items.
“I do think they should be separated, because, when you start putting so much into one bill, which we call an omnibus bill, makes it very, very difficult for the public to understand,” said Sen. Manchin on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Republicans argue that like the trillion-dollar COVID-19 relief bill, Biden’s infrastructure measure is full of spending for non-topic-related issues such as funding Black colleges.
