Here's What's Included In The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

Senators passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill on Tuesday, a political win for President Biden — though the process is far from over.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act focuses on investments in roads, railways, bridges and broadband internet, but it does not include investments that Biden has referred to as "human infrastructure," including money allocated for child care and tax credits for families. Democrats are looking to address those priorities separately.

The package calls for $550 billion in new spending over five years.

Nineteen Senate Republicans joined the Democratic caucus to support the bill, but its outlook is less certain in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says her chamber will not take up the legislation until the Senate also passes a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that includes other Democratic priorities such as immigration and child care initiatives.

Here's a look at what's included in the agreement:

Transportation

• Roads, bridges, major projects: $110 billion
• Passenger and freight rail: $66 billion
• Public transit: $39 billion
• Airports: $25 billion
• Port infrastructure: $17 billion
• Transportation safety programs: $11 billion
• Electric vehicles: $7.5 billion
• Zero and low-emission buses and ferries: $7.5 billion
• Revitalization of communities: $1 billion

Other infrastructure

• Broadband: $65 billion
• Power infrastructure: $73 billion
• Clean drinking water: $55 billion
• Resilience and Western water storage: $50 billion
• Removal of pollution from water and soil: $21 billion

How would they pay for it?

The package would be financed through a combination of funds, including repurposing unspent emergency relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening tax enforcement for cryptocurrencies. While negotiators said that the cost of the plan would be offset entirely, the Congressional Budget Office predicted it would add about $256 billion to projected deficits over 10 years.

Goals of the plan

Back in June, the White House shared a fact sheet with the aims of the package:

• Improve healthy, sustainable transportation options for millions of Americans by modernizing and expanding transit and rail networks across the country while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

• Repair and rebuild roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.

• Build a national network of electric vehicle chargers along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities.

• Electrify thousands of school and transit buses across the country to reduce harmful emissions and drive domestic manufacturing of zero emission vehicles and components.  

• Eliminate the nation's lead service lines and pipes, delivering clean drinking water to up to 10 million American families and more than 400,000 schools and child care facilities that currently don't have it, including in tribal nations and disadvantaged communities.

• Connect every American to reliable high-speed internet.

• Upgrade the power infrastructure, including by building thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy, including through a new grid authority.  

• Make the largest investment in addressing legacy pollution in American history.

• Prepare more infrastructure for the impact of climate change, cyberattacks and extreme weather events.