Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Signed Into Law by Biden - What Does It Do?

What’s the story?

• President Joe Biden on Monday signed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, which marked the culmination of a process that was years in the making. 
• The enactment of the bipartisan infrastructure framework decouples the package from Democrats’ social spending plan, which may receive a vote later this week if House Democrats are able to agree on a final package once 

What does the bipartisan infrastructure package do?

• Provides $110 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, and major infrastructure projects; $65 billion in new funding for passenger and freight rail infrastructure; and $65 billion to improve broadband infrastructure around the country.
• Funds energy efficiency and resiliency programs such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage; clean energy supply chain research; nuclear energy, including micro and small modular nuclear reactors; 
• Reauthorizes existing surface transportation programs and authorizes new programs at the Dept. of Transportation (DOT) over the FY2022-2026 period, including highway and multimodal transportation projects; public transit programs; and motor carrier safety initiatives.
• The surface transportation section of the package contains a pair of provisions that attracted heightened scrutiny, including a requirement that the DOT mandate all new passenger motor vehicles be equipped with “advanced drunk driving prevention technology that can passively monitor and accurately detect that a driver is impaired”; and a requirement for the DOT to study a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee that was assess fees on drivers based on the amount driving they do.
• Reauthorizes existing water infrastructure programs and authorizes new programs over the FY2022-2026 period, including western water storage projects; drinking water and wastewater programs; and replacement of lead piping in drinking water infrastructure.
• The package’s spending provisions are partially offset by repurposing approximately $210 billion from unused COVID-19 relief funding provided by Congress; $56 billion in forecasted economic growth; $53 billion from states returning unused enhanced federal unemployment supplemental funding; and $28 billion from applying reporting requirements to cryptocurrency.
• The package is projected to increase budget deficits by $256 billion over the next decade according to the Congressional Budget Office. 
• Read a full summary of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act here.

What they’re saying

• At a bill signing ceremony, President Biden said in part:

 “The bipartisan law will modernize our ports, our airports, our freight rail to make it easier for companies to get goods to market; reduce supply chain bottlenecks, as we’re experiencing now; and lower cost for you and your family. The law also builds on our resilience so that the next storm -- superstorm, drought, wildfire, hurricane -- can be dealt with.”

• Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), who co-led the Senate’s bipartisan negotiations on the package that began with a group of 10 senators and later expanded to 22 senators, said the following at the signing ceremony:

“Our work was guided by a few simple principles; core infrastructure only, no tax increases, and no linkage to the broader, partisan reconciliation process. Instead, we agreed this would be a truly bipartisan process, working from the middle out, not the top down. There were plenty of bumps along the way, but we got there because we were all committed to ultimately delivering a result for the constituents we represent.”

• Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who also co-led the Senate negotiations, said the following at the bill signing ceremony:

“How many times have we heard that bipartisanship isn’t possible anymore, or that important policy can only happen on a party-line. Our legislation proves the opposite, and the senators who negotiated this legislation show how to get things done.”

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Biden & Portman-Sinema: White House photos by Cameron Smith / Public Domain)