US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress and stakeholders during the signing of H.R. 1652, the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021, in the East Room at the White House on July 22, 2021.
Demetrius Freeman | The Washington Post | Getty Images
The White House announced Wednesday afternoon that President Joe Biden will on Monday sign into law the largest federal investment in infrastructure in more than a decade.
In a statement, the administration said Biden will be joined in a signing ceremony by members of Congress who helped write the $1 trillion piece of legislation to improve the nation’s roads, bridges and waterways.
“The President will highlight how he is following through on his commitment to rebuild the middle class and the historic benefits the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will deliver for American families,” the White House said in a press release.
Namely, “millions of good-paying, union jobs for working people, improvements in our ports and transportation systems that strengthen supply chains, high-speed internet for every American, clean water for all children and families, the biggest investments in our roads and bridges in generations, the most significant investment in mass transit ever, and unprecedented investments in clean energy infrastructure.”
Biden’s signature will make the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act law 10 days after the House passed the bipartisan piece of legislation.
The legislation includes about $550 billion in new funding for transportation, utilities and broadband. It also invests $110 billion into roads, bridges and other major projects, directs $66 billion toward passenger and freight rail and $39 billion into public transit.
The bill will invest $65 billion in expanding broadband access. It will put $55 billion into water systems, including lead pipe replacements. The legislation also includes a provision for cryptocurrency tax reporting.
Lawmakers have tried and failed for years to pass such a comprehensive bill to upgrade the nation’s utilities and surface transportation infrastructure. The White House and many other leading Democrats say the bill will ease pesky supply-chain disruptions and keep prices from soaring even higher.
While 13 House Republicans helped the bill clear the chamber last week, its fate had been uncertain for much of the fall. Fierce debate between progressive and centrist Democrats, which centered on the bill’s passage in tandem with the separate Build Back Better plan, threatened to derail the infrastructure plan.
Ultimately, progressives accepted promises from centrists that they would support the $1.75 trillion social safety net and climate package when it comes up for a vote. Centrists asked to the delay the Build Back Better vote until they are able to review the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates of the plan’s budgetary impact.
Unlike the infrastructure package, the Build Back Better bill is opposed by virtually every Republican on Capitol Hill. Democrats will attempt to circumvent a GOP filibuster in the evenly split Senate using a special budgetary rule known as reconciliation that will allow the party to muscle the legislation through with a simple majority vote.
