WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged President Joe Biden on Monday to get the two top Democrats in Congress to abandon a plan to link a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal to a larger reconciliation package that Republicans reject.

Two days after Biden withdrew a threat to veto the bipartisan bill here if it was not accompanied by a separate package focused on what he calls “human infrastructure,” including help for home healthcare, McConnell said that separating the two would be the only way for Congress to revamp America’s roads and bridges.

“I’d like to see us get there, and I do think the only way we can get there is to de-link the two issues. They are really separate issues,” McConnell said at a news conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

Republicans earlier this year rejected Biden’s call for a sweeping $2.3 trillion infrastructure package as too costly. After that, Democrats spent weeks publicly discussing plans to proceed with a two-step approach, which would couple a smaller bipartisan deal with a second package here passed through the narrowly divided Senate with only Democratic votes.

But Biden’s comment last week – suggesting that he would veto the bipartisan bill unless it arrived at his desk with a companion reconciliation measure – triggered outrage among Republicans.

It will takes weeks before actual legislation on either the bipartisan bill or the reconciliation package makes it to the Senate floor for votes.

In statement on Monday, McConnell said Biden’s weekend move would amount to “a hollow gesture” without similar messages from Biden’s fellow Democrats: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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

Biden’s threatened veto of the bipartisan agreement roiled Republicans who had negotiated the deal. On Saturday, the president issued a statement that essentially withdrew the threat, saying it was “certainly not my intent.”

The walkback was welcomed by Republican Senate negotiators who said on Sunday that they were once again optimistic about getting the bipartisan bill though Congress.

McConnell has not decided whether to support the bipartisan agreement, noting on Monday that it was not clear whether the proposal was “credibly paid for.”

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