“We’re working to keep that number as low as we possibly can,” he said.
A few House Republicans who are members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus have announced their support for the measure, including Representatives Tom Reed of New York, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Don Bacon of Nebraska. On Monday, Representative Don Young of Alaska, the longest serving member of the House, announced his support with an impassioned speech on the House floor.
Moderate Democrats say others may follow suit — maybe as many as 20 Republican votes — if Ms. Pelosi can win over enough liberals to keep it close. But with a Thursday vote looming, time is running out.
Representative Peter Meijer, a freshman Republican from Michigan, said he had heard from Republicans from both sides, but when he asked whether it would be better for both bills to pass or both to fail, “the consensus is better both fail.” “President Biden saddling infrastructure with this $3.5 trillion albatross around its neck was a poison pill for those of us who wanted a bipartisan solution,” he said.
The infrastructure bill is an unusual phenomenon in a starkly polarized Congress: a truly bipartisan and significant bill, hammered out by Democrats and Republicans before it passed the Senate last month with 69 votes, 19 of them Republican, including that of the minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
With $550 billion in new federal spending, the measure would provide $65 billion to expand high-speed internet access; $110 billion for roads, bridges and other projects; $25 billion for airports; and the most funding for Amtrak since the passenger rail service was founded in 1971. It would also renew and revamp existing infrastructure and transportation programs set to expire on Friday.
But because House Democratic leaders have at least verbally packaged it with a larger, $3.5 trillion climate change and social policy bill, it has been caught up in the politics of that measure — and broader Republican efforts to thwart President Biden’s agenda.