Barrasso: We Want to Work with Biden on Infrastructure — ‘There’s a Deal to Be Had’

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Republicans were willing to compromise with President Biden on infrastructure, adding “there’s a deal to be had.”

Partial transcript as follows:

BARRASSO: Well, what we’re working with, and as Shelley talked to President Biden Thursday, I’ve been working regularly with the — with the other Joe, powerful Joe in Washington, Joe Manchin. And we’re focusing on core infrastructure. President Biden calls it hard infrastructure as opposed to soft infrastructure.

So I actually believe there’s a deal to be had if we leave things out like the Green New Deal, and recyclable cafeteria trays and climate justice, because $500 billion to $600 billion of infrastructure is a massive amount of infrastructure. And we ought to start with the core that we passed when I chaired the Environment and Public Works Committee, which was a plan that passed 21-to-nothing. I voted for it, Bernie Sanders voted for it. It focuses on building faster, better, cheaper, smarter. It focuses on the things that people think of as core infrastructure that the president talks about as hard infrastructure.

RADDATZ: So, on our ABC/Ipsos poll also. It says 67 percent of those polled said Republican leaders in Congress are doing too little to compromise with Joe Biden. You are a Republican leader. So, are there places where you could compromise on the president’s agenda? Where you see a good opportunity to meet him and Democrats in the middle even beyond this?

BARRASSO: Well, a couple of things. You know, with coronavirus relief, we did five bipartisan bills, each of which got over 90 votes and when President Biden came into office, gave the speech about unity on Inauguration Day. Ten Republicans went to the White House to meet with him on another coronavirus package, and we made really good faith efforts. He ignored all of it. They did this with budget reconciliation by the slimmest margin of votes. Ignored Republicans. We want to work together with this administration on true infrastructure and I think there’s a deal to be had.

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