President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, 4,300 projects underway with more than $110 billion in funding, announced
Washington (U.S.)- The U.S. government announced 4,300 projects underway. Six months after President Joe Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure package. With more than $110 billion in funding reported. Achievements, the administration is publicly celebrating as midterm elections heat up.
Mitch Landrieu said The roads, bridges, and other projects lay “the groundwork for tremendous growth in the future. He was Former New Orleans mayor and White House, senior adviser.
Landrieu stated that Biden and members of his administration had made more than 125 trips to highlight bipartisan infrastructure investments. He declined to predict how well voters will receive the storytelling as construction begins.
“I think that if Americans step back, we will all have to admit that for the last 50 years, we’ve needed to do this. And we haven’t found the will or the way to get it done,” Landrieu told reporters. He added that this is a “wonderful down payment” on infrastructure needs that total roughly $7 trillion.
The administration made a strategic calculation that delivering results would help Democrats. To retain control of the House and the Senate in this year’s elections. Infrastructure was a rare source of bipartisan unity as Biden struck a deal that attracted several Republican senators. The law contains money to expand internet access. And replace lead water pipes and rail and public transit projects and investments to address climate change.
When Biden signed the law on Nov. 15, he pledged to voters that “America is moving again, and your life will change for the better.”
The stock market is down; inflation is near a 40-year peak. Russia’s war in Ukraine is pushing up energy costs, and many Americans feel pessimistic about the economy’s health. There is an open question of whether voters will reward infrastructure projects whose benefits are years away as part of what Biden has portrayed as an “infrastructure decade.”
“All we can do is tell the story about what we do, and its impact on the midterms will be whatever it’s going to be,” Landrieu said.
Of the $110 billion announced, $52.5 billion is for federal highway funding this fiscal year and $20.5 billion for public transit. There is another $27 billion over five years for bridges and money for safety, rural highways, airports, ports, drought resilience, and other programs.
The infrastructure spending is also one area where political leaders will have to share credit. Governors and mayors are responsible for 90% of the expenditures in the law, while the federal government accounts for 10% of the spending. The administration has actively tried to help state and local governments compete for the money, with Landrieu noting that even Republican critics are generally eager to receive the funding.
“Some brilliant person said, you know, even those who voted no want the dough,” he said. “This is as close to consensus in my political life that I have seen.”
The Commerce Department last week called on states to begin submitting their plans for universal access to high-speed internet. Biden has also taken steps to maximize the likelihood that construction materials are made domestically, as the money has started to go out.
Landrieu said the two biggest challenges of coordinating the spending have involved offering technical assistance to smaller governments and enabling workforce development to fill the jobs being created. There are 7.6 million construction jobs in the U.S., with employers advertising about 400,000 openings in the sector.
Landrieu said those challenges are also “an unbelievable opportunity to get right something that we haven’t been collectively very good at in the country.”
If the government succeeds with coordination and future administrations follow suit, Landrieu said, “America will grow exponentially faster and winning the 21st century is not going to be a challenge for us.”