How Biden’s sherpa, Steve Ricchetti, scored the big deal - POLITICO

Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti, leaves a bipartisan infrastructure meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 22.

Rob Portman spent nine hours holed up in a Russell conference room with White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, furiously working through last-minute disagreements in the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

The arrangement proved fruitful — at least in the eyes of Senate negotiators and the White House.

On Wednesday, senators announced a more complete framework, and the reason the negotiations made it to that juncture, many senators told POLITICO, was because of Ricchetti.

More than any other Oval Office aide, the senior White House adviser and Biden confidant is tied to the infrastructure negotiations in the Senate.

Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said Ricchetti ran point as the lead White House negotiator, shored up by countless hours of lawmaker engagement from National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell.

Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who has criticized the White House and Senate in recent weeks for ignoring the transportation bill passed in the House, said Ricchetti is aware of his concerns about the bipartisan deal, he just isn’t sure the White House counselor cares about them.

“[Ricchetti’s] listening, and we've provided paper, and we had a list of suggested and least minimal changes they could make in the bill,” said DeFazio, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Richetti’s elevated role in the infrastructure negotiations demonstrated both the degree of trust Biden has placed in him and the degree to which the White House found it necessary to play a central role in congressional affairs.

The congressman said that “the subject matter experts” in both the Senate and House should be writing the deal “as opposed to the three people who wrote the bill who know nothing about transportation.”.

Republicans told Ricchetti “that if the President did not walk back what he had spontaneously said that it would bring our negotiations to a halt,” said Sen.

But Ricchetti is someone more establishment lawmakers feel comfortable around and they turn to him when they need a White House ear

During negotiations, senators said Ricchetti’s “omnipresence” over the talks helped move them along

But Ricchetti has also been careful to not get ahead of his boss, they said, taking time to run things by Biden and others at the White House before committing

Though Ricchetti helped shepherd the deal to this point, much work for him and the rest of the White House remains

White House aides have long insisted that Ricchetti’s chief function in the negotiations is to secure a big infrastructure pact for the president

After months building trust among Senate negotiators and working to make Biden’s bipartisan wish come true, the longtime Biden consigliere has a lot riding on the success of the deal