After a long, halting trek, the largest federal infrastructure bill in recent memory has pushed past a critical legislative milepost, with the US Senate’s approval of a $1-trillion measure that would provide major funding infusions for a wide range of public works categories including highways, bridges, water, the electric grid and broadband.

The package, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, won Senate passage Aug. 10 on a strong bipartisan 69-30 vote. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it.

The bill next goes to the House, where the outlook and the timing for floor action are unclear.

Dave Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association president and CEO,cautions, “The Senate vote is a much-needed step, but not the finish line.”

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (Del.), the Democrats’ floor manager for the bill, said, “It’s the largest long-term investment in America’s infrastructure in almost a century.”

Biden Priority

基础设施资金一直是乔·拜登总统的优先事项，可以追溯到他的2020年总统大选。3月下旬，拜登（Biden）推出了一个200万美元的框架时，利息激增。[查看Enr新利18备用 3/31/2021关于Biden公告的故事here。]

The Senate bill is the result of long negotiations over the past several months involving various Senate Republicans—who balked at Biden’s spending proposals—and Democrats. Unsurprisingly, the bill’s funding levels are well below those in the March proposal.

但是，过去参议院谈判的资深人士拜登（Biden）在投票后很乐观。在新闻发布会上讲话, he said, “After years and years and years of Infrastructure Week, we’re on the cusp of an infrastructure decade.”

Breaking Down the 'New Money'

Of the bill’s estimated $1-trillion total, about $550 billion is increased funding over current baseline levels across infrastructure categories.

Of that new money, highways, bridges and other major transportation projects would receive the largest share, about $110 billion. Passenger and freight rail would get $66 billion, transit would receive $39 billion, airports $25 billion and port and inland waterways projects would get $17 billion.

Among non-transportation categories, water infrastructure, including aid for drinking-water and wastewater-treatment projects, would be allotted $55 billion, and improvements to the electric grid would gain $73 billion.

The proposal also has an emphasis on addressing the effects of climate change, including $46 billion to increase projects’ resilience against storms, wildfires and other natural disasters.

高速公路，过境，水授权

这项措施还为高速公路，运输和美国环境保护局的水位计划重新授权了重要的五年。高速公路和水法案已于今年早些时候清除了环境和公共工程委员会。EPA水单总额为350亿美元，也得到了整个参议院的批准，并被包裹在8月10日批准的总包装中。

Noting the hefty funding for EPA water and broadband, National Utility Contractors Association CEO Doug Carlson said in astatement, “This bill is a big win for NUCA members.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), the top Republican on Environment and Public Works, said the highway authorization totals $303 billion, a 35% increase over the last multiyear highway bill, the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

Industry Impacts

Jay Hansen, National Asphalt Pavement Association executive vice president for advocacy, said in an interview the $303 billion would provide “significantly increased investments in highways, roads and bridges, so naturally we’re elated about that.”

A separate provision would bolster the struggling Highway Trust Fund by transferring $118 billion from the general fund. Of that, the trust fund's highways account would receive $90 billion and its transit account would get the other $28 billion.

行业官员还强调了重新授权的长期范围。波特兰水泥协会高级政府事务副总裁肖恩·奥尼尔（Sean O'Neill）在接受采访时说，长期范围“在未来几年内将在基础设施的所有方面进行投资的确定性。”

More broadly, Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Companies senior vice president for advocacy, said, “This is going to be huge for the industry.”

Hall said in an interview, “Having a predictable, stable, growing five-year surface transportation program—coupled with major increases in investments in water and other areas of the built environment—is really going to open a lot of opportunities for the industry to design innovative solutions to areas related to resilience and climate change and all of the things that this seeks to address.”

House's Turn Is Next

Attention has quickly shifted to the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said she wants to take up the infrastructure bill basically in tandem with a second bill that’s an even larger part of Biden’s legislative agenda—a $3.5-trillion budget measure that would include funding for what the president calls “human infrastructure,” including education, child care and health care.

Unlike the infrastructure bill, the budget measure will be taken up under the reconciliation mechanism. It permits bills to clear the Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the usual 60-vote Senate threshold to avert a filibuster.

Senate Democrats on Aug. 9 rolled out their first stage of that reconciliation measure, a budget resolution that sets overall funding levels for each committee. The Senate approved the budget resolution early on Aug. 11 on a 50-49 vote.

随后将为各个委员会的部门详细立法。参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默（Chuck Schumer）在8月11日表示，他的目标是在9月15日之前结束和解措施。

Industry Seeks Fast House Action

一些建筑和工程官员希望看到这两个法案未链接，并敦促对基础设施的行动更快。

Stephen Sandherr, Associated General Contractors of America president and CEO, said in astatement, “The last thing Washington should do is hold a much-needed, bipartisan infrastructure bill hostage to partisan politics.”

霍尔说：“基础设施的“胜利”就在那里。”他补充说：“如果立法者想在社会政策方面与之作斗争，那就让他们这样做，然后进行辩论。但是，让我们在基础设施上赢得胜利。”

Michele Stanley, National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association vice president for government and regulatory affairs, said in comments emailed to ENR, “Ultimately, the [infrastructure] bill will pass the House with a small margin. The timing of that is unknown and it may not happen until later this fall, but it will get across the finish line.”

Story updated on 8/11/2021 with Senate passage of budget resolution.