How a Coalition of Business and Labor Groups Helped Save the Infrastructure Bill
As Democrats and Republicans in Congress squabbled over blowing past the deadline on an infrastructure agreement, the business and labor communities were getting tired of the partisan fighting.
Their leaders, who span both sides of the aisle and who had poured tens of millions of dollars into lobbying on this issue, just wanted a resolution, convinced that an investment of over $500 billion in new spending to improve the country’s broadband, transit systems and drinking water will be crucial to rebuilding a post-pandemic economy.
“Our messages have not wavered in the sense [of] ‘keep fighting through, keep working through the differences. And we believe the the benefits of getting the bipartisan package outweigh some of the short term pain,’ says Ed Mortimer, Vice President of Transportation Infrastructure with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group that represents over 3 million organizations.
On July 28, the group of 22 Senators who had been hammering away for weeks on a bipartisan agreement finally announced it had become a reality, and the Senate approved a crucial procedural vote later that evening. The business and labor communities had joined together to fuel the push to get the deal across the finish line. Business groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, which represents 230 CEOs of the country’s largest companies, including Amazon’s Andy Jassy and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, joined with labor groups like the AFL-CIO, the country’s largest federation of unions.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-a-coalition-of-business-and-labor-groups-helped-save-the-infrastructure-bill/ar-AAMI1Wo
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