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WASHINGTON — Patience running thin, Democratic leaders are laying the groundwork for a go-it-alone approach on President Joe Biden’s big jobs and families infrastructure plans even as the White House continues negotiating with Republicans on a much more scaled-back $1 trillion proposal.

The White House is giving bipartisan talks on a compromise infrastructure package another week to 10 days to bear fruit and is prepared to endorse a Democrat-only route if that effort fails, according to House lawmakers.

Marty Walsh and a handful of other Cabinet secretaries have launched an ambitious travel schedule to promote the infrastructure plan and the larger Biden agenda.

Whether it's $400,000 for boardwalk improvements on the Jersey Shore or $8 million to fix a freight bottleneck between two bridges in Louisiana, earmarks are part of the process of getting legislation passed. And so it is with the highway bill that is expected to reach the House floor by July 4. Here's your Capitol Agenda look at the week ahead for trucking on Capitol Hill.

The debate over how to pay for the nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems is leading some normally anti-tax Republicans to embrace higher levies on motorists — even a new one based on miles driven instead of fuel purchased.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators is eyeing an infrastructure deal with $579 billion in new spending as negotiators try to strike a nearly $1 trillion deal on President Joe Biden’s top priority, according to those briefed on the plan.

Republican and Democratic senators said June 10 they were open to considering the first change in the national gasoline tax since 1993 to help fund a bipartisan infrastructure spending package they plan to propose to President Joe Biden.

After the White House and Senate Republicans ended negotiations on an infrastructure package, congressional Democratic leaders announced their intention to rely on an intricate budget process to pass a key piece of the president’s domestic agenda.

The transportation committee in the U.S. House of Representatives advanced a five-year, $547 billion surface transportation reauthorization bill that seeks to modernize much of the country’s highway systems.

The Connecticut General Assembly approved a bill that would impose a highway use fee on heavy commercial trucks.