The Biden Administration has sent a $1.6 trillion discretionary funding request to Congress that includes a wide variety of planned infrastructure construction and upgrade projects.
Included in the legislation, which is currently under review in the Senate Committee on Appropriations, is $3.6 billion for improvements to the nation’s water infrastructure.
The request is also asking for $10.2 billion for the National Science Foundation, a portion of which will go for research facility construction.
Just over $3.8 billion will go for Community Development Block Grants designed to rehabilitate and modernize public infrastructure in the nation’s underfunded and marginalized communities.
A smaller $2 billion is being requested for general federal building construction, while $1.7 billion will target energy-saving retrofits to schools and homes.
Analysts have noted that the funding request did not include money for continued border wall construction.
As officially presented by the Office of Management and Budget, the request proposes a total of $769 billion in non-defense discretionary funding, a 16% increase over last year, along with $753 billion for national defense programs, which comprises a 1.7% increase.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, in a statement, said the “investments proposed by the Biden administration are necessary and urgent.”
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has criticized the request, saying that counting for inflation, it represents an overall decline in defense spending.
By Garry Boulard
