Re-Building America Starting Now

From Helen Cox Richardson’s Nov. 5 dispatch: “At about 11:30 p.m., the House of Representatives passed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) by a vote of 228–206. Biden promised to pass a bipartisan measure and after nine months of hard work, he did it: thirteen Republicans voted in favor of the bill; six progressive Democrats voted against it. The measure had already passed the Senate, so now it goes to his desk for a signature.

This bill is a huge investment in infrastructure. Axios lists just how huge: over the next 8 years, it will provide $110 billion for fixing roads and bridges, $73 billion for the electrical grid, $66 billion for railroads, $65 billion for broadband, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $47 billion for coastal adjustments to climate change, $39 billion for public transportation, and so on.

The Guardian’s congressional reporter, Hugo Lowell, noted: “Regardless of the politics, the passage of a $1.2T bipartisan infrastructure bill is a towering legislative achievement for Biden—and one that Trump never came close to matching.”

Better roads
Good roads (Photo by Sebastian Palomino from Pexels)

See the text of HR 3684 here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684/text

At a $1.2 Trillion price tag, there will be jobs and we know from the Biden administration’s spending on workers, families and services during Covid that federal spending spurs the economy into new growth. The day before the infrastructure bill passed, Nov. 4, the stock market’s S&P 500 hit a high of 4660 largely based on the suprisingly rapid decline in the unemployment rate in the US. Every section of the nation is in need of road improvements, transit service improvements, water systems improvements, bridge repairs, power systems improvements, etc. $1.2 trillion is only a start to what it will take to build America back to being competitive with the repair, renewal and modernization of its basic infrastructure which has been ignored for so many years.

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see also:
http://assetstewardship.com/category/asset-type/cities-technology/
http://assetstewardship.com/category/asset-type/energy/
http://assetstewardship.com/category/jurisdictional-level/national-level/
http://assetstewardship.com/category/asset-type/public-buildings-facilities/
http://assetstewardship.com/category/asset-type/water/
http://assetstewardship.com/category/jurisdictional-level/international/

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