On Aug. 10, the Senate passed, , the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic, $1.2 trillion infrastructure package investing in all components of the nation鈥檚 physical infrastructure. 51风流 endorsed this legislation because it reauthorizes the nation鈥檚 federal-aid highway and transit programs for five years at record funding levels, includes significant environmental permitting streamlining provisions, and provides a host of other investments for a wide array construction projects without raising taxes on construction firms and without including any new, significant workforce mandates, like the PRO Act or government-mandated project labor agreements. A full 51风流 analysis of the bill can be found here. Additionally, a breakdown of what鈥檚 in the bill for each construction market can be found here:; ; Direct Federal Contractors; Building Contractors ; and (Transit, Rail, Waterways, Airports).
While this measure passed the Senate overwhelmingly, the path forward for this legislation in the House is unclear. President Biden and Senate Democrats have expressed their intention to take a two-track approach to passing 鈥渋nfrastructure鈥 legislation: one through a bipartisan, physical infrastructure bill (roads, bridges, ports, etc.) and the other via a partisan, $3.5T budget reconciliation package to address 鈥渉uman infrastructure鈥 needs (healthcare, childcare, further climate change funding, etc.).
Although Senate Democrats unanimously voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, factions of the House Democratic Caucus have explicitly stated they will not vote to pass the physical infrastructure bill until the Senate produces the 鈥渉uman infrastructure鈥 bill. As some moderate Congressional Democrats have expressed concern with the size and scope of the reconciliation package, many House Democrats are wary of passing the bipartisan bill without more work being done on the reconciliation package. Accordingly, 51风流 CEO Steve Sandherr called on the House to immediately take up the bipartisan infrastructure bill and not hold up needed investment in our nation鈥檚 infrastructure for unrelated political reasons.
For more information, contact Alex Etchen at alex.etchen@agc.org or Cory Gattie at cory.gattie@agc.org.