Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said he expects President Joe Biden will accept the latest bipartisan infrastructure bill which Romney called “true infrastructure help without raising taxes.”
“I do take the president at his word,” Romney said during an interview Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union.
Biden on Saturday backed away from his earlier comments suggesting a possible threat of a veto on the bipartisan bill unless it was paired with a bigger spending bill from Democrats, saying it was not his intent.
The bill, negotiated between the White House and Democrats, and Romney and nine other Republican lawmakers, would invest $1.2 trillion over eight years to address bridges, roads, railways, electric utility support and more without raising taxes.
“I am totally confident the president will sign it if it comes to his desk,” Romney told CNN’s Jake Tapper, adding that the president’s “other agenda” was never linked to infrastructure efforts. If it had been, he said, the president would not have found Republican support.
“We’re not going to sign up for a multitrillion-dollar spending spree,” Romney said of the Democrats’ larger bill.
Our bipartisan infrastructure deal focuses on true infrastructure—roads, bridges, rail, broadband, water and electric infrastructure—without raising taxes. And I take the President at his word that he’ll sign this bill when it gets to his desk. pic.twitter.com/2oB2yJ9iiY
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) June 27, 2021
The GOP senator didn’t have as much confidence in Congress getting the bill that far, however, saying, “The real challenge is whether the democrats can get their act together and get it on his desk.”
Biden’s other priorities, including family plans and child tax credits, he said last week, would be addressed in a congressional budget reconciliation.