President Biden’s proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan unveiled in March continues to be under the political microscope in Washington. Just this week, reports showed Biden was willing to compromise with the GOP by lowering the minimum corporate tax rate of 15%.
According to Farm Journal Washington Correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer, Biden also signaled he could accept a narrower infrastructure package that didn’t include raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, telling a top Senate Republican that he wants $1 trillion in new spending and floating alternative ways to pay for the measure. That includes offering to use $75 billion of unspent COVID-19 funding. Republicans have pushed redirecting $700 billion of existing Covid aid to pay for the plan.
Wiesemeyer also reported that, according to details the administration released earlier this year, the tax would apply only to companies with income exceeding $2 billion. As a result, the White House says 180 companies would meet the income threshold and 45 would pay the tax, according to administration estimates.
Broadband is infrastructure.
— Secretary Tom Vilsack (@SecVilsack) June 3, 2021
The American Jobs Plan will bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American. pic.twitter.com/ZstpcDBsB1
Key members of the Biden administration continue to push the benefits of the President’s plan. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack took to Twitter to once again highlight the need for affordable and reliable broadband.
According to Stephanie Mercier, a senior policy advisor for Farm Journal Foundation, the issue of funding rural infrastructure is long overdue.
“In aggregate, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the U.S. government is only paying about half of what is needed to maintain and improve our public infrastructure, with the 10-year gap in investment growing to nearly $2.6 trillion,” she says in a recent AgWeb article.
She says while the infrastructure needs are vast, a 2020 report by a national transportation research non-profit group found 34% of roads in rural areas of the U.S. are in poor or mediocre condition.
According to Wiesemeyer, talks will continue today and likely through the weekend on the size of the infrastructure plan and how to fund it.
