Biden tells Schumer to prepare party-line vote for infrastructure plan as talks with GOP break down

President Biden is ordering Senate Democrats to start preparing for the increasingly likely scenario that they’ll have to pass his infrastructure plan via a complex legislative process that doesn’t require GOP support, signaling that his patience for negotiating with the Republicans is drying up.

Biden, who has tried to reach a compromise with GOP negotiators for weeks, told Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday to “commence work” on a so-called reconciliation resolution for the infrastructure bill he envisions costing at least $1.7 trillion, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Reconciliation is a long-winded budgetary process that allows the Senate to pass legislation in simple majority votes, circumventing the customary 60-vote threshold. Biden’s green light for the go-it-alone alternative suggests he’s coming around to the fact that his infrastructure package may not get any Republican votes.

Still, Psaki said Biden is holding out hope for a bipartisan deal. First off, he will switch up who he’s talking to from the other side of the aisle, she said.

After negotiations with a GOP group led by West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito didn’t produce results, Biden will now engage with a bipartisan collection of senators that includes Louisiana Republican Bill Cassidy, Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, according to Psaki.

“He urged them to continue their work with other Democrats and Republicans to develop a bipartisan proposal that he hopes will be more responsive to the country’s pressing infrastructure needs,” Psaki said.

However, Psaki noted that he’s telling Schumer to start the reconciliation process because he “will not accept inaction as the outcome.”

“The president is committed to moving his economic legislation through Congress this summer, and is pursuing multiple paths to get this done,” she said, adding that Biden is hoping for a Senate vote on the infrastructure plan in July.

Biden has argued that the infrastructure bill that comes out of Congress must overhaul the nation’s various crumbling physical infrastructure systems, like roads, bridges and public transit, while also pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into fighting climate change and creating jobs.

In addition, Biden has also drawn a red line over his push to pay for the package by hiking taxes on corporations — a proposal deemed a non-starter by most Republicans, who also favor a far smaller infrastructure bill focused solely on physical structures.