Get in line. As the Biden administration and Congress work toward a landmark, $1 trillion infrastructure deal, nearly 2,000 corporations and other groups have met with legislators and White House officials in an effort to shape the bill to their own interests. The White House and a bipartisan group of senators announced a preliminary agreement at the end of July, which includes some $550 billion in new spending. As of early August, the bill totaled 2,702 pages, a massive laundry list that includes the following:
- $110 billion for roads and bridges
- $39 billion for public transit
- $66 billion for Amtrak and other passenger and freight rail efforts
- $7.5 billion for electronic vehicle charging stations
- $17 billion for ports
- $25 billion for airports
- $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure
- $65 billion for broadband internet
- $75 billion for the electrical grid
How are we going to pay for all this? Among other measures, by tapping $205 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief, $53 billion in supplemental unemployment insurance payments that states declined to make available to their citizens, and $28 billion in cryptocurrency tax enforcement.
Don’t take any of the above to the bank just yet, however. Assuming it passes the Senate, the bill next has to make its way through the House, which has its own ideas.