okay we have tracked down one of the key
players in negotiating this
infrastructure deal
that being louisiana center bill cassidy
mr cassidy it's a great pleasure thanks
for doing this uh we i don't know we
have you in the back seat of the car i
don't care as long as i can track you
down sir
anyway senator i want to congratulate
you
because i know your hearts and your
motives are pure
so i want to congratulate you but i do
want to ask you
about what senate majority leader may be
saying in a few minutes on the floor
the senate minority leader rather mitch
mcconnell
are you concerned about president
biden's clear
linkage between the infrastructure bill
and what will be a gigantic
reconciliation
package with spending and taxing how do
you feel about that
i cannot control what democrats do my
gosh
if i could there would be democrats on
the other hand
on the other hand what we've done is
taken that portion of their huge bill
which was their real infrastructure not
the fake infrastructure
and we have decreased it and made it
focused
even if they end up passing their human
infrastructure
completely in total we still would have
we still would have saved hundreds
of billions of dollars relative to their
initial request
and frankly have a much more focused
productive bill
so so i think we've made progress even
if schumer
majority leader schumer decides to
proceed with another
reconciliation bill well i think the
biggest problem
bill for the conference would be all the
tax hikes
that the democrats won essentially
repealing trump's corporate tax hikes
and then
capital gains you know the rift the
international taxes
and even the estate taxes it seems to me
that's going to be
a big problem for the gop conference
well if you're talking about not our
bill because
we don't touch the tax cut and jobs act
bill which we look at and can't help but
notice
there was incredible prosperity that
resulted
with record low unemployment for you
fill in the blank
african americans veterans women the
disabled high school dropouts
so we didn't want to touch that feeling
as if that was the basis of the success
we had
on the other hand if majority leader
schumer
wants to do a reconciliation bill in
which he undoes those
uh well we'll just have to see we will
just have to see what that effect is
um kind of a controlled experiment if
you will uh
can we tax our way to prosperity or can
we let the american people keep their
money
and see what happens that's what
republicans did it worked out pretty
well
yes it did sir um how much of the
infrastructure part let's go back to
your basic bill
which most of it from what i can gather
looks pretty good
um how much can you pay for from unused
relief money a lot of people are asking
about that
i know the numbers are a little soft
right now but what were you thinking you
and your
colleagues when you put it together of
course republicans wanted it
entirely paid for that way but you
you're seeking common ground
i think ultimately we have about about a
fourth of it paid
uh or 125 billion or thereabouts
is coming from uh
kova dollars uh which again we thought
you got more but that's what we were
able to come to
all right well that's that's a good
chunk you're not gonna make much money
on this irs
tax gap stuff nobody really believes
that um
but what about you know uh use local
user fees i'm not talking gas
you know federal gas tax local user fees
local tolls and local bonding center
cassidy aren't those all
okay with the democrats so
there is there is a process in here
in which communities can voluntarily
decide
to take the municipal bonds
or these other kind of asset recycling
type procedures and they can fund that
however they wish
they could fund it with a local tax they
could fund it with a
with a sales tax with a toll they could
elect to do it but it's up to the
community to find the best way
on the other hand experience in many
parts of the world
have shown that if you put a little seed
money out there it can attract a
tremendous amount of private capital
this was part of president trump's
original bill as well
for infrastructure unfortunately never
got passed
but i think it's a principle embraced by
both parties
you're not uh tell me you're not
referring to an infrastructure bank are
you sir
that you know there is an infrastructure
bank component in here
i know um i was hoping you tell me it's
not true
uh in which you would have dollars
rotating through uh and then paid back
sorry to disappoint you larry you know
you know senator cassidy old friend
you don't really want another fannie mae
or freddie mac do you you don't really
you you just put that in as like a show
thing you don't really think it's gonna
happen
your point is well taken um there
you know we have to craft this
legislation
to avoid all the problems of a fannie
mae and a freddie mac
but experienced out of australia and
china
and other countries have shown that and
and frankly the united states
we have a program called wifi for water
projects
in which it's a revolving fund in which
the overhead is low
but it's stimulated a lot of private
investment are non-federal public
investment
and that's our model more than freddie
mac or fannie mae
moving ahead on this now stuff that
looks good
at least on paper you're going to get
the basic elements roads
bridges tunnels uh you know 5g
connections broadband connections
all that i think is great is there
anything in there that concerns you
though
about what i'm just going to call
excessive unionization
you know union rules things of that sort
that they couldn't get through elsewhere
that's something that's still hanging
over being discussed
there's davis bacon provisions in there
which require
a higher wage than might normally be
paid
on the other hand countering that we
have adopted language
which would um uh improve permitting
and so yes davis bacon's there that's
going to be a partisan fight
on the other hand on a bipartisan level
we decided for
um improved permitting so it doesn't
consume
so much of the money and so much of the
time to get a project completed
uh basically completing uh survey after
survey after survey
i think that's uh senator cassidy i
think permitting is absolutely key
absolutely i mean we did this this ran
through the nec
we worked on this executive order as you
know nepa permitting
which will bring businesses in to do
more because they'll have more certainty
that could be a home run sir a really a
home run
that that could make these dollars and
the time frame by which the projects are
completed
fewer dollars to take the same project
but the project completed more quickly
and i think that's where the american
people want it to be now is there any
forced
green deal provisions in here that you
might not otherwise do in a normal
infrastructure bill
there's a lot of language we don't have
you're in a car and i have a show to do
but i mean is there anything that
troubled you i mean
you're down there in the oil patch we
like oil we like natural gas and so
forth and so on
anything really bad in there no there's
not there's 16 billion dollars to cap
orphan oil wells that's a good thing
they're a safety hazard they release
methane nobody's producing anything
there is the so-called scale act a bill
that i put in with
chris coons which would support the
construction of carbon dioxide
pipelines so a company that like you
know a petrochemical company that wants
to take
their co2 out of their affluent and
either
sequester it or use it for another
product we're supporting the development
of those pipelines kind of to jump start
it if you will
but that's a good thing for my state
it's going to create a lot of jobs for
pipefitters
lower carbon intensity help companies
meet their net carbon neutrality goals
there's a lot of stuff in there that's
good for my state and the companies
themselves
like a lot of that stuff last one
senator kennedy and you as
you are sarah cassidy you are my hero on
this um
can you help us work so i know how
important
uh the male prairie chicken is
and i know how people are worried about
its endangerment but we did some back of
the envelope
if you put that on the endangered specie
list sir
roughly 75 of our oil production will be
wiped out
you think you'll be able to prevent um
putting it on the uh
endangerment list
i'll do my best i don't want 75 percent
of our oil production
i kind of thought you'd agree with me on
that um actually
the only thing that would be the only
thing would be endangered
would be not only oil fossil fuel but
the whole economy i don't want to
endanger the economy
senator cassidy you are a prince for
doing this sir i appreciate it back to
the car
you look great you're my first back of
the car interview
in the roughly 20 years that i've been
doing this stuff and when i get back
down there you and i have a couple
i owe you at least a diet coke you're
terrific today thank you for helping us
sir
all right welcome thank you larry you
betcha anytime all right