On Monday, November 15th, President Biden will sign the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the long-awaited bipartisan infrastructure bill, into law.
Attending the ceremony will be members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, governors and mayors, and labor union and business leaders.
The Senate passed the bill in August, and the House passed the bill on Friday. President Biden announced that the signing will take place in a formal ceremony so that members of Congress, who are in recess this week, can join.
The bill allocates hundreds of billions of dollars towards improving highways, bridges and roads, public transportation, broadband access, and the power grid, all across the country. The White House, with sources from external economists, has said that the law will create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next ten years.
The law also will spend $60 billion to modernize the power grid and $55 billion to replace lead pipes and improve the nation’s water supply.
As per the push from progressive members of Congress, the law will invest in green energy, combat pollution, and allocate for emergency response in natural disasters, all critically important as the effects of climate change continue to worsen.
“This is not a plan that tinkers around the edges. It is a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve done since we built the Interstate Highway System and the Space Race,” in the 1950s and ’60s, President Biden said.
Sources: ABC News 11/10/21; Washington Post 11/6/21
