After weeks of delay and parliamentary maneuvering, Congress has given its approval to the five-year, $1.2 trillion infrastructure package proposed earlier this year by President Biden.
Funding in the bill, which was initially passed by the Senate late last summer, will target everything from bridge and highway construction and upgrade projects, to work on the nation’s energy and broadband systems.
In a statement released after the vote, the White House said the legislation will also “help ease inflationary pressures and strengthen supply chains by making long overdue improvements to our nation’s ports, airports, rail, and roads.”
As passed, the bill will provide $110 billion for roads, bridges, and major infrastructure. Up to $55 billion will target new and upgraded drinking water systems; with $39 billion going for public transit modernization.
According to the text of the legislation, some $66 billion will go for passenger and freight rail infrastructure projects.
Broadband infrastructure projects will be funded to the tune of $65 billion, a decrease from the $100 billion the Biden Administration had initially proposed.
An additional $7.5 billion will go for the building of a national network of electric vehicle charging stations across the country. Those stations will be built along the nation’s highway corridors.
In a statement, Stephen Sandherr, chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, lauded the bill for providing the “kind of funding needed to modernize the country’s aging and overburdened infrastructure.”
Paul Skoutelas, chief executive officer of the American Public Transportation Association, called the legislation a “necessary step in providing the transformational investment in public transportation infrastructure that our country so desperately needs.”
An opposite point of view was expressed by David Ditch, a policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, who said the bill stands as a “harbinger for future economic problems.”
Ditch particularly criticized funding in the legislation for such things as programs to cool pavement in cities and mandated reports on climate change as initiatives going “far beyond the traditional definition of infrastructure.”
The infrastructure bill passed on a 228 to 206 House vote. It is thought that President Biden will sign the legislation into law this week.
By Garry Boulard
