Business Roundtable Statement on White House-Senate Republican Infrastructure Meeting

May 13, 2021

Washington – Business Roundtable issued the following statement ahead of today’s meeting between President Biden and a group of Republican Ranking Members on an infrastructure package:

“Business Roundtable is encouraged by today’s upcoming meeting between President Biden and Senators Capito, Barrasso, Blunt, Crapo, Toomey and Wicker—a clear sign that both parties are making a good faith effort to reach bipartisan consensus,” said Business Roundtable President & CEO Joshua Bolten. “We agree with their shared goal of reinvigorating the U.S. economy by making a major investment in the nation’s infrastructure. We encourage the Administration and Members of Congress to continue to work in a bipartisan, regular order fashion to upgrade America’s infrastructure in a way that supports American job creators and workers.” 

Background

New economic analysis from Business Roundtable found that an additional investment of $979 billion—including $600 billion in federal funding—is needed to return U.S. physical infrastructure to a state of good repair. The analysis shows that smart investments would result in important, tangible benefits for all Americans, including an additional $1,800 in disposable income for the average U.S. household every year for 20 years and 1.2 million additional new jobs by 2030. 

Business Roundtable supports user pays models, which are responsible, long-term funding mechanisms through which users, including businesses, pay for the infrastructure—roads, bridges, water systems and more—they use. Unlike corporate tax increases, which fall on U.S. job creators, user pays models also require foreign companies to pay when they use U.S. infrastructure. Business Roundtable also supports policies that would unleash private capital to pay for infrastructure investment, including through promoting public-private partnerships and streamlining the permitting process—policies that are possible only through regular order legislation.

The Roundtable strongly opposes funding infrastructure investment through anti-competitive business tax changes, which would undermine economic growth, hurt employers’ abilities to maintain good-paying American jobs and make the United States less competitive globally.

We use cookies to give you the best experience when using our website. You can click “Accept” if you agree to allow us to place cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Notice.