The president Joe Biden signed the law this Monday (15th) with a bipartisan package of infrastructure $1.2 trillion and scored its biggest legislative victory to date at a White House event with lawmakers from both parties.
The legislation will generate $550 billion in new federal investments in the infrastructure of the USA over five years, including money for roads, bridges, public transport, railways, airports, ports and waterways.
The package includes a $65 billion investment in improving the country’s broadband infrastructure and investing tens of billions of dollars in improving the electricity grid and water systems. Another US$ 7.5 billion should go towards building a national network of chargers for electric vehicles with plugin, according to the text of the bill.
The bill, first approved by the Senate in a vote of 69 to 30 votes in August, was finally approved by the Chamber, with the vote of 13 Republican lawmakers, on 5 November.
Congress returned to Washington on Monday after a week-long recess to tackle a number of critical issues ahead of the holiday season, including passing Biden’s broader economic and climate agenda, government funding earlier. deadline of December 3 and the increase in the debt limit.
The ceremony comes as Biden faces a drop in polling numbers ahead of next year’s midterm elections after a blunt defeat for Democrats in Virginia state election earlier this month.
Dissatisfaction with the pandemic and the resulting economic problems – including record inflation – are contributing to Biden’s declining popularity. A new ABC-Washington Post poll released over the weekend put the president’s approval rating at 41 percent and disapproval at 53 percent.
The signing ceremony marked a rare bipartisan gathering, with state and local officials in attendance from both ideological sides.
Republican senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Rob Portman and Bill Cassidy were among those who attended. Moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin, a key stumbling block in ongoing negotiations over Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, was also scheduled to be there, as were Republican representatives Don Young of Alaska and Tom Reed of New York.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted in favor of the bill, said last week he did not plan to attend.
Bipartisan state and local officials were also expected to attend the event, said a White House aide, including Republican Party Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, with whom Biden highlighted the package’s measures last week in Baltimore, Democratic Governors Kate Brown of Oregon and John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, and the mayors of Oklahoma City, Columbia, Long Beach, and Chicago.
Representatives from key economic sectors will also attend the celebration, including leaders from United Airlines, Ford, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups. And the unions will also be present.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, a Republican, told the CNN that the project will provide financing for your city’s roads and bridges.
“This is a day of celebration for mayors. We struggled for nearly a decade to achieve this huge investment in our country’s infrastructure. So I’m delighted that Congress and the White House were able to work together to finally accomplish this feat. That means a lot for roads and bridges, water infrastructure, broadband, trains, transit, all the things that are core infrastructure and cities like mine really need help,” Holt said.
Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who has been named senior advisor and will oversee coordination of project implementation on behalf of the White House, was also in attendance.
Landrieu, said the White House, “will oversee the most significant and far-reaching investments in American infrastructure in generations – the work that independent experts have found will create millions of well-paying union jobs while increasing our economic competitiveness around the world, strengthening our supply chains and acting against inflation in the long run”.
Senior government officials, as well as the president, said it will take time for Americans to see and feel the results of the bill’s investments.
“They will see the effects of the bill likely starting in the next two to three months,” Biden told reporters after the bill was passed, adding that it “will have a profound impact over time.”
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Reference: CNN Brasil
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