They’ve got a $1.2 trillion deal.
Well, it finally happened. After literal years and multiple presidential administrations of talking about the need for Congress to pass an infrastructure bill, the … U.S. Senate … passed an … infrastructure bill?
Oh yes, it did. And it’s a big one, too. A real big one: It’s approximately $1.2 trillion, with half of it in new spending. It will allocate money to build out (or repair) public transit, freight and passenger rail, water systems, broadband internet access, the electric grid, and electric vehicle charging stations. It also spends tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure affected by the changing environment – things like wildfire, drought, and coastal erosion mitigation.
And, remarkably, it got 19 Republican senators to vote for it. With all the Senate’s Democrats on board, the final tally was 69-30. President Biden, as you would expect, is very happy with this result. It’s a big piece of its economic agenda:
The Alliance for American Manufacturing is, too. This bill includes bona fide Buy America rules, which will make sure all this necessary infrastructure work will be done by American workers and manufacturers. This bill will already double as an economic stimulus program; those Buy America rules will max that stimulus out.
AAM President Scott Paul had this to say:
“The House also adopted similar provisions in its infrastructure bill, and Congressional leaders should now ensure Buy America is included in the final legislation. Let’s get infrastructure investment across the finish line and on President Biden’s desk.”
He’s right – this isn’t finished yet. As it moves to the House, let your representatives know that we need an infrastructure bill with strong Buy America rules attached signed into law post haste. Pronto!
