What's in the new infrastructure bill -- and why it's a big deal

[babylonsister]

What’s in the new infrastructure bill — and why it’s a big deal
The bill would genuinely impact many people’s lives.
By German [e-mail]@vox.com Jul 29, 2021, 1:50pm EDT

snip//

Here are the areas that would get major new spending:

Transportation projects: The bill would spend $110 billion in new funds for road, bridges, and related projects. It also would commit $39 billion for public transit — which the Biden administration described as “the largest federal investment in public transit in history” — along with $66 billion in rail. It’d spend $42 billion on ports, airports, and related projects. And it would invest $11 billion in making America’s roads safer.

Reconnected communities: In the past few decades of road construction, many American cities have been physically divided by large highways, disproportionately affecting minority communities. The bill would spend $1 billion to reconnect many of these places.

High-speed internet: The bill would spend $65 billion with a goal of providing broadband internet to all Americans, further aiming to boost competition among providers and reduce the cost of high-speed internet to make it more affordable.

Electric vehicles: The bill would put $7.5 billion into a national network of electric vehicle chargers. It would also put $7.5 billion toward electrifying buses and ferries. These actions, the Biden administration said, are meant to create jobs but also help tackle global warming by decarbonizing major components of American transportation systems.

Other action on climate change: The bill would also make several other investments meant to combat climate change, including $28 billion on power grid infrastructure, resiliency, and reliability (in part to help expand the reach of clean energy) and $46 billion to, in part, mitigate damage from floods, wildfires, and droughts.

Clean drinking water: The deal would spend $55 billion on clean water infrastructure, particularly to eliminate lead pipes and other dangerous chemicals in today’s service lines.

Cleaning up the environment: The bill would also commit $21 billion on environmental remediation, particularly to clean up superfund and brownfield sites, abandoned mines, and orphaned gas wells.

more...

https://www.vox.com/22598883/infrastructure-deal-bipartisan-bill-biden-manchin

[SheltieLover]

1. Sorely needed!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. And what's not in the infrastructure deal:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/28/upshot/infrastructure-breakdown.html

Small view if you can't get through the paywall:

Link to tweet

[WHITT]

3. Except

The deal would spend $55 billion on clean water infrastructure, particularly to eliminate lead pipes

Which is NOT enough to replace all the lead pipes in the country. So

1) Who gets to decide which communities get their lead pipes replaced and which don't?

2) How do they intend to explain to the communities who do not get their lead pipes replaced that other communities did, but they did not?

[WHITT]

4. More Interesting

will be the 'pay fors'. All the horribles in this bill will be dragged-out onto the floor of the House and flogged for all of the American people to hear and see.