Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Passes The Senate. Here Are The Highlights

Aug. 10—The Senate passed a roughly $1 trillion sweeping bipartisan infrastructure proposal on Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday evening that Democrats and Republicans had reached a deal on the bill, and the Senate passed the bill with a 69-30 vote just before noon. The passage comes after months of negotiations between President Joe Biden's administration and lawmakers in Congress.

The bill has faced criticism from some on the left who say it's too small and doesn't meet Biden's priorities, The Associated Press reports. Some Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized the size, focus and funding of the package, citing a Congressional Budget Office report that said it would add $256 billion to deficits over a decade.

The bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives, where it faces a more uncertain future. Some Democrats have said they won't support it until the Senate passes a second, larger package that focuses on funding for health care, child care and education, The New York Times reports.

The bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday includes funding for roads and bridges, public transit, clean water and broadband, among other things. Here's a look at what's included.

Roads and bridges

The bill includes $110 billion in funding for roads, bridges and "major projects" and another $11 billion for road safety.

The funding for roads and bridges would go toward rebuilding and repairing them "with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians," according to a fact sheet from the White House.

The $11 billion would go toward transportation safety programs to help state and local governments reduce crashes and deaths, especially among pedestrians and bikers.

Public transit and rails

The bill includes $39 billion toward modernizing public transportation and making it more accessible, and toward maintaining existing transit programs.

It would replace thousands of buses and other transit vehicles with zero-emission vehicles.

The bill would also invest $66 billion in passenger and freight rails. The funds would go toward eliminating Amtrak's maintenance backlog, modernizing the northeast corridor and bringing "world-class rail service to areas outside the northeast and mid-Atlantic," the White House says.

Biden's original infrastructure proposal included $80 billion toward rail transit. Amtrak said at the time it could bring dozens of new routes to cities across the U.S. with funding from his proposal.

Electric vehicles and buses

Another $7.5 billion would go toward building more chargers for electric cars, focusing on "rural, disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities," the White House says.

The bill would also put $2.5 billion toward zero-emission buses, $2.5 billion toward low-emission buses and $2.5 billion toward ferries.

"The deal will deliver thousands of electric school buses nationwide, including in rural communities, helping school districts across the country buy clean, American-made, zero emission buses, and replace the yellow school bus fleet for America's children," the White House says.

Broadband

The bill includes $65 billion for expanding access to high-speed internet and aims to lower internet prices by requiring providers that receive the funding to offer affordable plans, among other things.

"More than 30 million Americans live in areas where there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds — a particular problem in rural communities throughout the country," the White House says.

Airports, ports and waterways

The plan includes $25 billion in funding for airports and $17 billion in funding for ports aimed at repairs and maintenance, and reducing congestion and emissions near them.

Drinking water and water infrastructure

The bill would provide $55 billion toward clean drinking water, including funding for replacing lead pipes, service lines and chemical PFAs.

Another $50 billion would go toward updating and weatherizing the country's water infrastructure system to prevent droughts and floods.

Power infrastructure

The plan includes a $73 billion investment in upgrading the country's power infrastructure, including funding for building new transmission lines and research on advanced "transmission and electricity distribution technologies."

Environmental clean-up

The bill includes $21 billion for environmental remediation, which includes cleaning up superfund sites, or sites contaminated by dumped hazardous waste, and brownfields, which are sites not in use but potentially also contaminated by hazardous materials.

It also includes funding to reclaim abandoned mine lands and to cap orphaned gas wells.

How would it be paid for?

The White House says the plan will be funded by unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees and other sources. Biden originally proposed funding the plan in part by raising the corporate tax rate, but Republican lawmakers opposed the increase.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office on Thursday estimated that the bill would add $256 billion to "projected deficits" over the next decade. But CNN reports it did not take into considerations multiple factors that lawmakers have said would help pay for the bill.

The White House also said that the investments included in the bill would spur "higher economic growth" — creating revenue that would also help fund the proposals.

___

(c)2021 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)

Visit The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) at www.newsobserver.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.