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A bipartisan senators’ group working on a $1 trillion infrastructure compromise more than doubled in size to 21 members on Wednesday, a key threshold that gives momentum to their effort as President Joe Biden returns from overseas at a pivotal time for his big legislative priority, the Associated Press reported. Biden told reporters he had yet to see the emerging proposal from the group but remained hopeful a bipartisan agreement could be reached, despite weeks of on-again, off-again talks over his more robust $1.7 billion American Jobs Plan. “I’m still hoping we can put together the two bookends here,” Biden said as he prepared to depart Geneva after attending a summit of European leaders. The administration dispatched top White House advisers for back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill while the president was away. Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress are proceeding on a two-track strategy — seeking a bipartisan bill while preparing to go it alone if Republicans try to block the investments with a filibuster in the Senate. The administration officials huddled late Wednesday in the Capitol basement with the Democratic senators in the bipartisan group, grinding through details of the proposal. On Tuesday, the White House team shored up restless House Democrats eager for momentum on a shared domestic priority with the president.

A federal judge in Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from pausing new oil and gas leases on federal land, the Wall Street Journal reported. Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court in Monroe said the administration doesn’t have the legal right to stop leasing federal territory for oil-and-gas production without approval from Congress. The judge, appointed by former President Donald Trump, also said that states suing the federal government — largely southern and coastal states — will be harmed immediately as the pause prevents them from collecting lease bids and bonuses from oil-and-gas prospectors. The suit was filed by the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and West Virginia. Biden, during his first week in office, directed the Interior Department to suspend the program, among several new initiatives aimed at addressing climate change. The Interior Department said it would comply with yesterday’s order, but said that it would continue a review of current leasing and permitting practices. Biden had requested that assessment as part of his January order to suspend the federal oil-and-gas program.

Shoppers likely pulled back on auto purchases last month while boosting spending on other items and at restaurants, as more people got vaccinated against COVID-19 and business restrictions were further eased, the Wall Street Journal reported. Economists estimate that Tuesday’s Commerce Department report will show that overall retail sales declined 0.6% in May. They expect that sales excluding autos rose a solid 0.5% from a month earlier. Stronger overall spending is helping propel the broader U.S. economy, which grew at a 6.4% annual rate in the first quarter. Economists project that by the end of this year gross domestic product will reach the path it was projected to follow had the pandemic never happened — and then exceed it, at least temporarily. Vehicles, however, are in short supply as a global computer-chip shortage has left car dealers with a dearth of inventory. As a result, auto sales likely fell last month. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

Amid pandemic shocks to the supply chain, what does the future hold for the auto industry? Scott Wolfson of Wolfson Bolton PLLC (Troy, Mich.) provides his perspectives on the latest episode of ABI’s #IndustryViewpoints. Watch here. 

For further information and perspectives on supply chain interruptions and bankruptcy, pick up your copy of ABI's Interrupted! Understanding Bankruptcy's Effects on Manufacturing Supply Chains.

Lawsuits brought by white business owners challenging a policy that prioritized applicants for pandemic relief grants on the basis of gender and race have thrown the federal government’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund into turmoil, the New York Times reported. Tens of thousands of applicants who expected an easier path through the $28.6 billion aid program are now stuck in limbo, and nearly 3,000 restaurant owners whose grants were approved have been told they can’t be paid. The money is running out fast: The program has distributed $27.5 billion to about 100,000 applicants, an agency official said on Monday. When Congress created the Restaurant Revitalization Fund in March, lawmakers ordered the Small Business Administration, which runs the program, to include a 21-day exclusivity period. During that time, only applications from women, military veterans and “socially and economically disadvantaged” individuals — defined by the agency as those from certain racial and cultural groups who also had limited financial means — would be approved. Others could file their applications, but had to wait to have their requests reviewed. The fund began taking applications on May 3 and was soon overwhelmed. More than 362,000 businesses applied, seeking $75 billion — nearly three times what Congress had allocated. Little, if any, money would have been left for applicants outside the priority groups. Some restaurant owners sued, claiming that the priority period was discriminatory. Several judges agreed, prompting the agency to alter its approach. In court filings on Friday, the agency said it had — in late May, in response to the legal actions — stopped payment on priority applications. The 2,965 people whose approvals were revoked will be paid only “once it completes processing all previously filed non-priority applications, and only then if the R.R.F. is not first exhausted,” the agency said. Other applicants who expected to be part of the priority queue — tens of thousands of them, according to industry groups — are stalled, waiting to hear if they’ll be approved. About 72,000 of the applicants who have already been paid were covered by the priority process, Patrick Kelley, the head of the agency’s Capital Access office, said on Monday. They received $18 billion of the $27.5 billion that has been handed out.

Sen. Susan Collins said on Sunday that there won’t be any gas tax hike or any undoing of former President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax bill in the infrastructural proposal she and a small bipartisan group of lawmakers are developing, Politico reported. Appearing on CBS News' “Face the Nation,” the Maine Republican offered some ideas on how the group intends to pay for the plan. She listed three pay-fors: an infrastructure financing authority, repurposing unused COVID-19 relief funds, and a provision to ensure that drivers using electric vehicles pay their fair share for using the nation's roads and bridges. The bipartisan group of senators released a statement Thursday saying it had reached a deal, but it didn't include an overall price tag or details about how it would be financed. The group said the plan would be “fully paid for” and “not include tax increases,” but didn't offer more specifics. Earlier, infrastructure talks between Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who was leading the GOP’s effort to negotiate with the White House, and President Joe Biden fell apart. Now, the bipartisan group of senators believes it's nearing a deal that it can take to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Family-owned oil barge transport company Bouchard Transportation Company, headquartered on Long Island, informed regulators and its bankruptcy court that it is seeking a buyer, the Maritime Executive reported. The company, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection eight months ago, said it may begin layoffs in a matter of weeks if a buyer could not be located. The company, which was founded in 1918, was up until recently managed by family member Morton S. Bouchard III as the company's chief executive and director. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2020, saying it planned to continue normal operations with previously arranged debtor-in-possession financing while it moved forward with an operational restructuring. As part of the bankruptcy proceeding, Judge David R. Jones, who is hearing the company's case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, later replaced Bouchard in the role of CEO with Matthew Ray, a managing partner at Chicago-based Portage Point Partners. According to a filing made with the New York State Department of Labor Office of Dislocation of Workers Program, “the company is currently in the process of seeking a purchaser of Bouchard or its assets.” Bouchard's fleet includes 25 double-hulled barges and 26 tugboats. The notice informed New York State that the company is contemplating layoffs at its Long Island headquarters, which it reports currently employs 108 people. The firm said a buyer may elect to continue the employment of all or a substantial number of employees. Otherwise, depending on the terms of a purchase transaction, the company may need to engage in layoffs. The layoffs may begin on July 15 and would continue through August 15, the targeted closing date of the Long Island office.

The 25 U.S. states calling an early halt to pandemic-related federal unemployment benefits have recovered more of the jobs lost during the crisis than other states, possibly limiting how much of a dent ending the weekly $300 payments will make in the national battle to fill record job vacancies, Reuters reported. Republicans have taken aim at the enhanced benefits, which were first approved by Congress in a massive relief package last year and later extended, arguing they discourage people from returning to work and are no longer needed given the easing pandemic. Four Republican-led states are ending the payments as of Saturday, with 21 others following suit through early July. "Business owners ... are struggling not because of COVID-19 but because of labor shortages resulting from these excessive federal unemployment programs," Missouri Governor Mike Parson said last month as he announced a June 12 cut-off to the payments in his state. Payments to sole proprietors and contractors typically not eligible for unemployment insurance also will end. But in Missouri, as in the other states pulling the plug early on the benefits, the margin to boost local labor supply may be thinning. The state already has clawed back about 90% of the jobs it lost last year as the spread of the coronavirus devastated the U.S. economy. As of April, when its payroll jobs topped 2.94 million, there were only 16,000 more unemployed Missourians than before the pandemic, and about 93,000 collecting pandemic unemployment benefits. That pool includes solo contractors and gig workers on benefits for the first time during the crisis, and it is unclear how many will shift to conventional payroll jobs or resume old ones. Overall, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for April, the latest available, showed the 25 states planning to cancel benefits early have recovered about 80% of the jobs they lost during the crisis, versus a 66% recovery rate in the rest of the nation.