Republicans describe 'productive' meeting with Biden, but no deal on infrastructure

House and Senate leaders in both parties met with President Joe Biden for more than an hour Wednesday for “productive” talks that have not yet yielded a critical deal on infrastructure.

Biden told reporters at the start of the meeting he will “try to reach some consensus” on an infrastructure accord, but the two parties remain starkly divided on the size, cost, and offsets for the massive plan put forward by Biden.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, described the meeting as productive but said Biden’s plan to pay for the deal with higher taxes remains “our red line,” for the GOP.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said after the meeting that the group decided that “as a first step … we would explore the places we could agree on and come to a bipartisan agreement on that.”