Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged President Joe Biden on Monday to tell Democratic congressional leaders not to tie the $1.2 billion bipartisan infrastructure deal to Biden’s American Families Plan.

Shortly after announcing the infrastructure agreement Thursday, Biden upset Republicans by saying, “If … this (bill) is the only one that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem.”

Republicans who negotiated the deal said they were never told the bill would explicitly be linked to Biden’s $1.8 billion plan for improved child care, education and health care, and they criticized the president for threatening to veto the infrastructure bill. The American Families Plan could be passed through budget reconciliation, not requiring any Republican support if all 50 Senate Democrats vote for it.

Biden walked back his comments in a statement Saturday, saying, “I gave my word to support the Infrastructure Plan, and that’s what I intend to do.”

“(O)ur bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem,” Biden said. “We will let the American people—and the Congress—decide.”

The president added that he has not hid that he hopes to pass other pieces of his agenda through reconciliation and that he remains committed to his families proposal. He has also been feeling pressure from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing to lock in assurances on big-ticket investments in families, education and climate change mitigation.   

While McConnell welcomed Biden’s reversal, he called on the president Monday to ensure that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., follow his lead.

“Republicans have been negotiating in bipartisan good faith to meet the real infrastructure needs of our nation,” the Kentucky Republicans said in a statement. “The President cannot let congressional Democrats hold a bipartisan bill hostage over a separate and partisan process.”

In a news conference in Louisville on Monday, McConnell added: “Having been the majority leader myself, I can tell you the majority leader in the Senate and the speaker in the House determine the order of things. And so what I'm asking the president to do is to call on the majority leader and the speaker to deal with these issues separately because none of the Republicans during the negotiations and the Democrats that were in that group talked about it being linked to anything else.”

Pelosi has said there would not be a House vote on infrastructure until a reconciliation bill is put forward. 

At Monday’s White House news briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s statement over the weekend made it clear that he did not intend to threaten a veto. But Psaki sidestepped questions about whether Biden would sign the infrastructure bill alone.

“The president looks forward to and expects to sign each piece of legislation into law,” Psaki said. “And he's going to work his heart out getting both of them across the finish line.”

Psaki said Biden has been in contact with Pelosi and Schumer about moving the infrastructure proposal forward. She added that the “most impactful role” Biden can play in the process at this point “is to make the case to the American people, to the public, about how officials are working together to deliver for them.” He will attempt to do that during a visit to Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The bipartisan framework announced Thursday, coming in at $973 billion over five years, or $1.2 trillion over eight years, is a scaled-back but still significant piece of Biden’s broader proposals.

The investments include $109 billion on roads and highways and $15 billion on electric vehicle infrastructure and transit systems as part of $312 billion in transportation spending. There’s $65 billion toward broadband and expenditures on drinking water systems and $47 billion in resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.

The minority leader drew criticism from former President Donald Trump on Monday, who made the claim that "had Mitch McConnell fought for the presidency like he should have, there would right now be Presidential Vetoes on all of the phased Legislation that he has proven to be incapable of stopping."

Trump blamed McConnell for Republican losses in Georgia's two Senate races in January, which forced Republicans into the minority in the chamber.

"He never fought for the White House and blew it for the Country," Trump wrote.