%1

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.).

Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc. lobbied Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a pair of bills that would compel electricity cooperatives to put their customers on the hook for full payment to the state’s grid operator for power purchases during February’s extreme winter weather in the state, the Wall Street Journal reported. Louis Strubeck, a lawyer representing Brazos in its bankruptcy case, said in a court hearing on Friday that co-op executives met with the governor’s staff over the legislation, which would compel Brazos and other co-ops to issue debt to pay the full amount owed to the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Brazos also sent a letter to the governor urging him to veto the debt-financing legislation, Mr. Strubeck said Friday. “We think if those bills are signed into law, they have serious consequences for Brazos,” he said at a hearing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Texas lawmakers passed legislation last month that authorizes several sources of financing to cover the huge bills that some electricity cooperatives and retailers, including Brazos, ran up during the freeze. It requires cooperatives that still owe money to the state grid operator Ercot to “use all means necessary” to sell 30-year securitization bonds, using the proceeds to pay their storm bills in full.

A bipartisan group of 10 Senate Democrats and Republicans yesterday reached a new deal on infrastructure, agreeing to a nearly $1 trillion, five-year package to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes and Internet connections, the Washington Post reported. The new deal is the product of five Democrats and five Republicans — Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.). Their early agreement calls for about $974 billion in infrastructure spending over five years, which comes to about $1.2 trillion when extrapolated over eight years. The package includes roughly $579 billion in new spending. Democrats and Republicans agreed to focus their investments on what they see as core infrastructure, and their plan does not include any new tax increases to finance the spending, the four people familiar with the plan said. But it does appear to wade into politically fraught territory by proposing changes to the gas tax: Lawmakers do not plan to raise the rate, but they do seek to index it to inflation, according to one of the sources, meaning consumers’ costs at the pump could rise.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on Congress to provide an additional $60 billion in aid to restaurants and bars after the initial relief fund sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic ran dry, The Hill reported. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) introduced a bill Thursday that would provide an additional $60 billion to the $28.6 billion in restaurant relief funds included in the American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed in March. “Our restaurants are now beginning to recover from a year of lost revenue, but many establishments are still hurting and have not been able to access aid for which they are eligible,” Wicker said in a statement. “Replenishing this fund would help restaurants, their staff, and the broader food supply chain as they continue to get back on their feet.” Reps. Brain Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are leading the effort on the House side. Lawmakers said that restaurants need more support to survive the pandemic, which has caused more than 90,000 establishments to close their doors, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) yesterday pressed lawmakers to approve legislation that is meant to prevent the Sackler family from avoiding lawsuits related to the the opioid crisis, The Hill reported. “Congress has a duty to ensure that there is accountability for this deadly crisis and to prevent bad actors like the Sacklers from evading responsibility when they harm American communities,” Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told reporters during a press call. “We must pass the SACKLER Act before the bankruptcy plan is confirmed and the Sackler family will practically get off scot-free,” she continued. The legislation would prevent people who have not filed for bankruptcy from being released from lawsuits brought by states, municipalities or the U.S. government, including those related to the opioid epidemic. The legislation is meant to respond to a $10 billion restructuring plan Purdue Pharma announced in March that would allow it to leave bankruptcy. The company is the subject of lawsuits related to the opioid crisis. Under the plan, the company would transfer its assets to a company dedicated to fighting the opioid crisis, and members of the Sackler family would pay almost $4.3 billion over a decade to pay for the effort. In exchange, the family members would have “no involvement” in the new company and would be legally released from facing opioid-related lawsuits.

Democratic state treasurers are warning Congress against a GOP pitch to repurpose funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law to pay for infrastructure investments, The Hill reported. In an open letter to lawmakers yesterday, 14 Democratic state treasurers argued that taking funds from the COVID-19 relief measure would imperil the economic recovery. “These investments are already getting shots in arms and protecting the jobs of teachers, firefighters, health care workers and law enforcement. They will ensure not only recovery from the losses of the pandemic, but actually help reach pre-pandemic forecasts of economic growth,” the state treasurers wrote in the letter, which was spearheaded by Invest in America Action, an advocacy group pushing for a robust infrastructure package. “Now that the road to recovery is clear, some members of Congress are considering clawing back these vital funds to pay for other priorities,” the letter continued. “As State Treasurers and guardians of our states’ fiscal health, we urge Congress to resist calls to raid COVID relief funding. The risks are too great and will cause a longer, more difficult economic recovery for everyone.”