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A group of Senate Republicans plans to present their latest offer to the White House on a major new infrastructure package on Thursday, with one member saying it will weigh in at almost $1 trillion, Bloomberg News reported. “This is going to be a very good offer,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said yesterday. The latest counter will be “close” to $1 trillion, spread over eight years, he said. Democratic lawmakers have warned that time is running short to determine whether a bipartisan deal on infrastructure is possible, with progressives already calling for a go-it-alone approach using fast-track budget procedures. A new offer around $1 trillion would still be well short of Friday’s $1.7 trillion proposal from the White House. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the lead Republican negotiator, said that the group may request a meeting with Biden, since he seemed more open to a deal in a gathering last Thursday than his staff later did. Wicker similarly said that if Biden is able to decide on a response to the new GOP plan, rather than administration staff, the president would accept it.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a case that would have challenged financially troubled coal companies’ use of bankruptcy law to end federally mandated payments to the industry’s multiemployer pension plan, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Court said yesterday that it won’t hear a dispute arising from the 2018 bankruptcy of Westmoreland Coal Co., which used chapter 11 to sell its coal mines to its creditors. The appeal challenged a strategy used in chapter 11 by Westmoreland and other bankrupt coal companies to end payments assessed under the Coal Act, a 1992 law meant to keep the industry pension plan financially sound and guarantee retiree benefits for coal miners. Yesterday’s decision leaves in place an August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that the power of bankruptcy law to modify or eliminate retirement liability trumps obligations under the Coal Act. That decision followed a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in favor of a different bankrupt coal company. Those two federal appellate courts cover parts of the Southeast and Texas. The appeal the Supreme Court denied was brought by trustees who represent the interests of the coal pension plan. Trustees argued unsuccessfully in the Westmoreland case that the Coal Act assessments that companies are required to pay are a tax and therefore cannot be undone under the section of chapter 11 that allows corporate debtors to modify or end their legacy retirement obligations. But the Fifth Circuit in August agreed with Westmoreland, which said that Coal Act obligations are the codification of retirement benefits and therefore are subject to the chapter 11 provision that lets companies end retirement obligations. In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit said Congress “made no clear indication” that it intended to specifically carve out Coal Act obligations from the power of chapter 11 to cut corporate costs and liabilities.

From California to Virginia, many states that faced devastating shortfalls in the depths of the pandemic recession now find themselves flush with tax revenues because of a rebounding economy and a soaring stock market, the New York Times reported. Lawmakers who worried about budget cuts are now proposing lucrative increases in school spending, tax cuts and direct payments to their residents. That turnaround is partly the product of strong income tax receipts, particularly in states that heavily tax high earners and the wealthy, whose finances have fared well in the crisis. The unexpectedly rosy picture is raising pressure on President Biden to repurpose hundreds of billions of dollars of federal aid approved this year, in order to help fund a potential bipartisan infrastructure deal. Last week, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) suggested that Biden and Republican negotiators look to “some of the funding that’s been sent to states already under the last few bills” to help pay for that agreement. “They don’t know how to use it,” Romney said. “They could use that money to finance part of the infrastructure relating to roads and bridges and transit.” Some economists and budget experts support that push, arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere and that states’ spending plans could add to a risk of rapid inflation breaking out across the country. Other researchers and local budget officials say that the federal aid is rescuing harder-hit cities and states, like New York City and Hawaii, from a cascade of layoffs and spending cuts.

Prospects look dim for bipartisan agreement on an infrastructure-spending bill as lawmakers argue over the basic questions of what should be included, how large it should be and how to pay for it, the Wall Street Journal reported. The infrastructure talks stalled after Republicans said the Biden administration’s Friday counteroffer to Senate Republicans didn’t go far enough toward the GOP position. If that stalemate continues, Democrats may attempt to move on their own, using budget reconciliation rules to pass a package without needing any Republican votes. The bipartisan discussions have had a soft Memorial Day deadline, perhaps leading to another week of back-and-forth before Democrats start trying to assemble votes on their own. A partisan strategy wouldn’t guarantee that the entire White House plan could become law; Democrats have slim majorities in the House and Senate, and they would need to figure out just how much taxing and spending those lawmakers can accept. “We would like bipartisanship, but I don’t think we have a seriousness on the part of the Republican leadership to address the major crisis facing this country,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which would assemble any one-party infrastructure spending package, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “If they’re not coming forward, we’ve got to go forward alone.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key Republican whose vote would likely be needed for any bipartisan deal, said the administration’s insistence on social spending makes an infrastructure bill difficult to reach.

More than three-quarters of Republican-led states plan to end an extra $300-a-week in federal jobless benefits early, as unemployment claims reach pandemic lows, likely triggering a decrease in the number of benefits recipients this summer, the Wall Street Journal reported. This week Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana joined the list of at least 21 states that are cutting off access to federal benefits early after a much weaker-than-expected April jobs report sparked concerns of labor shortages. States are opting out of the $300 supplemental benefit, extended payments and benefits for gig-economy and other workers not typically eligible for unemployment benefits. States have announced dates ranging from mid-June to mid-July for when they will stop processing pandemic-related benefits. That means nearly 3.5 million individuals could lose the $300 weekly benefits — which were set to expire in early September — beginning in mid-June, according to estimates by forecasting firm Oxford Economics. Of those, about 1.4 million will also lose pandemic benefits for gig workers, and about 1.1 million will no longer have access to extended benefits that kick in after claimants exhaust their regular state benefits.

Texas, Indiana and Oklahoma this week joined the growing number of states that are withdrawing from federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits, the New York Times reported. Supported by Republican governors and lawmakers as well as national and state chambers of commerce, the decision will eliminate the temporary $300-a-week supplement that unemployment recipients have been getting and will end benefits for freelancers, part-timers and those who have been unemployed for more than six months. In Wisconsin, where the governor is a Democrat, Republicans in the Assembly and Senate have introduced legislation to end participation. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming also plan to end federal unemployment benefits, beginning in June or early July.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s pension bailout might do more than just support troubled retirement plans. It could also spur tens of billions of dollars in demand for corporate bonds with the lowest investment-grade ratings, according to Citigroup Inc., Bloomberg News reported. Struggling multi-employer pensions, which are often tied to unions, will be able to apply for special financial assistance, thanks to the $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bill signed into law in March. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insurers the plans, will make a single lump-sum payment to eligible funds. Citigroup estimates that roughly 230 pensions will be eligible to receive $86 billion as early as 2022, though the amount may change when the pension insurer releases application guidance in July, strategists Daniel Sorid and Jason Williams said in an interview. The plans will have to invest the money in high-grade bonds or other securities approved by the agency. The strategists said that pension managers may try to extract as much yield as possible by loading up on bonds in the lowest investment-grade rung, which yield 2.46% on average, versus 2.23% for the broader market. Existing funds could get reallocated into riskier investments like stocks, they added. But in credit, the new demand may entice companies rated BBB to issue longer-dated paper than they usually do and flatten the curve for bonds maturing in 10 years and 30 years even further.