White House, bipartisan group agree on infrastructure framework
24 June 2021
The White House and a bipartisan group of senators struck a tentative deal on Wednesday for the framework of a roughly $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, Senate aides familiar with the negotiations told Axios.
What's next: The Senate group will brief President Biden at the White House on Thursday, though some details still need to be ironed out, the aides said.
- The tentative agreement comes after a series of meetings on Capitol Hill this week between the Senate group and White House Counselor Steve Ricchetti, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell.
By the numbers:
- $1.2 trillion over eight years, or $974 billion over five years
- $579 billion in new spending
- Package is fully paid-for
What they're saying: “White House senior staff had two productive meetings today with the bipartisan group of senators who have been negotiating about infrastructure,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
- “The group made progress toward an outline of a potential agreement, and the president has invited the group to come to the White House (Thursday) to discuss this in-person.”
- "There’s a framework of agreement on a bipartisan infrastructure package,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters as she left the meeting Wednesday night.
- "Republicans and Democrats have come together along with the White House, we’ve agreed on the framework and we're going to be heading to the White tomorrow," Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told CNN's Manu Raju.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.