US Senate approves $1 trillion infrastructure bill

With White House encouragement, 19 Republican senators joined 49 Democrats to surpass the required 60 procedural vote requirement, thereby approving the roughly US$1tr public works package that constitutes one of the biggest such investments in American history.

With around half of the money earmarked as new spending, the aim will also be to improve roads, tunnels, bridges, water, Internet and other major infrastructure, but also to address the challenges of climate change. The historic move reverses years of stalled initiatives and ‘crumbling’ infrastructure.

Moving to the next hurdle, if the public works package is approved by the House of Representatives, the result will be the first major bipartisan victory for the Biden presidency.

The tunnelling sector is likely to benefit from the spending as the bill involves $110bn for road, bridge and highway replacement and repair; and $66bn for rail (passenger and freight). The deal represents the largest federal investment in public transit in history and the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak half a century ago.

Around $55bn will go toward drinking water supply infrastructure; and $65bn toward the power grid. Other areas that will benefit include $7.5bn toward electric-vehicle charging stations; and $47bn for battling the climate emergency.

A statement from the White House said the deal would be financed “through a combination of redirecting unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees, strengthening tax enforcement when it comes to crypto currencies, and other bipartisan measures, in addition to the revenue generated from higher economic growth as a result of the investments”.

Following their victory in the Senate, Democrats now look set to push their other spending priorities as part of a second and broader $3.5tr package, reported The Washington Post.