U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the bipartisan infrastructure bill is “linked in people’s lives” with a Democratic reconciliation bill.
During an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Buttigieg said the administration wants to get both bills through “because we view them as, in people’s lives, these things are linked, right?”
He added, “You don’t think about your cost of transportation one month, and then the next month, you think about the cost of child care. People are living these things all at the same time, and Congress is dealing with these things all at the same time.”
Buttigieg reiterated it is “critically important” to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Co-host Joe Scarborough asked Buttigieg if there is going to be “linkage” between the two bills.
“I’m not sure it’s clearly defined, other than people who are interested in the process, what that even means,” Buttigieg said.
He added, “I mean, is it going to be linked in the sense of this being one single piece of legislation that moves all at once? No, I don’t think it is.”
Watch his comments below (starting at 3:00):
Buttigieg then asked, “Is it going to be linked in terms of different members of Congress care about getting them both done?”
He said, “Of course.”
The transportation secretary continued, “Are they linked for us? I mean, they’re linked in people’s lives. But, look, they’re going to be different packages.”
President Joe Biden warned on Thursday he would not sign the bipartisan bill without a reconciliation bill.
“I expect that in the coming months this summer, before the fiscal year is over, that we will have voted on this bill, the infrastructure bill, as well as voted on the budget resolution. But if only one comes to me, this is the only one that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem,” Biden said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also said the House will not take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the Senate votes on a reconciliation bill.
Biden later clarified his remarks on the matter in a statement released on Saturday.
“At a press conference after announcing the bipartisan agreement, I indicated that I would refuse to sign the infrastructure bill if it was sent to me without my Families Plan and other priorities, including clean energy,” Biden said.
He continued, “My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to walk back their “threats” to link the passage of the infrastructure package to a spending bill.
“Unless Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi walk-back their threats that they will refuse to send the president a bipartisan infrastructure bill unless they also separately pass trillions of dollars for unrelated tax hikes, wasteful spending, and Green New Deal socialism, then President Biden’s walk-back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture,” McConnell said.