(Bloomberg) -- White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy expressed confidence on Thursday that tax credits for electric cars would survive in a reworked Build Back Better climate and social spending bill after President Joe Biden signaled willingness to accept “chunks” of the stalled legislation. 

“I’m not seeing any dispute about the need to continue to make sure that these technologies are affordable and accessible to everyone,” McCarthy said during a question and answer session at the Washington Auto Show. 

“Let’s be very clear about what the president said and didn’t say,” McCarthy said. “You know Build Back Better has been in negotiations for a long time. We’ve made a lot of progress. We continue to have those discussions. We’re jump starting them again.” 

The comments come as Congress has struggled to enact all of Biden’s proposals for boosting the adoption of electric vehicles. The $550 billion infrastructure bill that was signed into law by Biden in November includes $7.5 billion for electrical vehicle charging stations, but a proposal to offer as much as $12,500 in tax credits for buyers of new and used plug-in car purchases remains in limbo as Congress struggles to pass Biden’s proposed Build Back Better bill. 

In a press conference on Wednesday, Biden said he was “confident we can get pieces -- big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law.” 

McCarthy said Thursday: “It’s not about what we leave behind, it’s about how do we negotiate smartly and how do we move this forward. Because the president is not interested in carving this up. He’s interested in getting it done.” 

Biden has called for half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. to be capable of emissions-free driving by the end of the decade, an ambitious goal that automakers have said can only be achieved with bigger government investment in charging stations and other infrastructure like the expansion of the federal tax credits.

“EVs don’t just help us reach our climate and air quality goals,” McCarthy said. “When you drive one of these things, you want one. So we are talking about a real market here. Not one that we have to push.”

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