$973B Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal: What Growth Can We Expect?

• After several weeks of negotiations, President Biden and a group of Republican and Democratic senators announced a deal on infrastructure spending Thursday.
• The plan, encompassing $973 billion of investment over five years and $1.2 trillion if continued over eight, includes nearly $600 billion in new spending and focuses on funding for roads, railways, bridges, water facilities and broadband internet. Biden’s original infrastructure proposal, released in March, had a price tag of more than $2 trillion.
• The bipartisan deal is far from a sure thing. Despite the bipartisan compromise, Biden said Thursday that he will not agree to any legislation unless it is paired with another bill addressing other elements of his original infrastructure proposal such as child care tax investments. “If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it,” he said.

During the bipartisan negotiations, a key issue has been how to pay for the plan, with Republicans opposed to undoing any of their 2017 tax cuts and Biden against raising the gas tax. The proposal released yesterday would be funded by a combination of increased tax enforcement, unused unemployment insurance, unused coronavirus relief funds, state and local funds for broadband, sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and several other measures, the White House said.