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The Senate on Tuesday passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure bill in a 69-30 vote.
The Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act puts $110 billion into roads, bridges, and other major projects, $66 billion into passenger and freight rail, $65 billion into broadband, $55 billion into water systems, and $39 billion into public transit, among other spending.
“It’s been a long and winding road, but we have persisted, and now we have arrived,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “There were many logs in our path, detours along the way, but the American people will now see the most robust injection of funds into infrastructure in decades.”
“This is what it looks like when elected leaders take a step toward healing our country’s divisions rather than feeling those very divisions,” Senator Krysten Sinema said.
The infrastructure bill will fund improvements for roads, bridges, highways, water and broadband infrastructure around the United States.
“To me, not only does this investment make sense, but importantly, what we are doing here today also demonstrates to the American people that we can get our act together on a bipartisan basis and get something done,” Republican Senator Rob Portman said. “We can do big things on a bipartisan basis if we put our minds to it.”
According to The New York Times, the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act is the largest federal investment into infrastructure in more than a decade.
The infrastructure bill will now head to the House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that the measure will not be brought to the floor for a vote until the Senate passes the $3.5 trillion budget resolution that is currently being debated. The hefty budget packet will be used to address climate change, health care, child care, education, and paid leave. Wealthy individuals will be subject to tax increases.
“Whatever you can achieve in a bipartisan way — bravo, we salute it,” the House Speaker said on Friday. “But at the same time, we’re not going forward with leaving people behind.”
Lawmakers negotiated for months over provisions in the bill and the amount of funding that will be distributed.
“When we have more people on both sides of the aisle who want to do things in a partisan way, as opposed to figuring out how we can work together, I don’t think that’s in the best interests of the country,” Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, said. “It was really important for the continued relationships within the Senate that are so important to getting things done.”
Big news, folks: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal has officially passed the Senate. I hope Congress will send it to my desk as soon as possible so we can continue our work of building back better.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 10, 2021
