As Katie covered earlier this week, President Biden has delayed signing the more than $1 trillion infrastructure package with the help of Republicans who acted as a cane to help Nancy Pelosi limp it across the finish line last weekend. After passing the House, the bill was sent to Biden's desk to be signed into law, but it's still just sitting there collecting dust.
Apparently, as Katie explained, Biden wants to have a photo op with the Democrats who fought over the bill for months and maybe even some of the Republicans who voted "yes" on the final version. "Vice President Harris and I look forward to having a formal signing ceremony for this bipartisan infrastructure soon," Biden explained at the time the bill passed. "I’m not doing it this weekend because I want people who worked so hard to get this done, Democrats and Republicans, to be here when we sign it."
So Biden and Harris are pumping the brakes on getting infrastructure into law all of a sudden after spending months demanding it be immediately passed and quickly signed into law.
As far back as June 24, Biden said that the United States is "in a race with China and the rest of the world" and those nations "aren't waiting," he said urgently. "We have to move, and we have to move fast," Biden added before saying he was working with Pelosi and Schumer to move the bill through the "legislative process promptly."
On July 9, Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience of county leaders that "the infrastructure of our nation is in desperate need of an update," calling it a "critical issue."
On July 13, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in a gaggle aboard Air Force One that the infrastructure bill would "stop our children from drinking poisoned water that can impact them for life." Jean-Pierre also quoted a letter from the U.S. Conference of Mayors that called Biden's infrastructure plan "crucial to making meaningful progress on one of the most pressing... challenges facing our country."
On July 22, Biden called his infrastructure plan "a race to the future" and "a race for the 21st century." The president insisted infrastructure needed to get done because "we have to win the competition for the 21st century — that's really what's at stake."
On August 10, Biden reiterated "up to 10 million homes in America and more than 400,000 schools... and childcare centers have pipes with lead in them" that wouldn't get help without his infrastructure bill. He also claimed "some bridges are so weak that they couldn't have a firetruck go across it" and bragged that the bill's "long-overdue" contents will "change millions of lives for the better."
On October 20, Biden again painted a bleak picture of America's infrastructure saying "a significant portion" of America's bridges "are ready to fall" and "kids are getting brain damage because of the ingestion of lead." According to the president, "we can't afford to sit while other countries pass us by."
And yet — with all these bridges about to fall down, all these kids getting brain damaged by lead pipes in their homes and schools, all the rest of the world surpassing the United States — Joe Biden has decided to put off signing his infrastructure bill into law until he can get a nice picture for his scrapbook.