https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/infrastructure-bill-republican-vote/index.html$1 trillion towards infrastructure.
Mind you almost half of that is old funding, not new, but still - getting half a trillion in new funding for infrastructure, while way short of what is needed, beats the hell out of 0% of what was needed.
Over half of the bill — $550 billion — is new federal funding. It invests $73 billion to rebuild the electric grid, $66 billion in passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to expand broadband Internet access, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $40 billion to fix bridges, $39 billion to modernize public transit like buses and $7.5 billion to create the first federal network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
Electrical grid? $5 trillion to replace it:
https://theconversation.com/the-old-dirty-creaky-us-electric-grid-would-cost-5-trillion-to-replace-where-should-infrastructure-spending-go-68290Rail system? Biden wanted $80 billion. There was a $45.2 billion backlog as of this year, so the $66 billion is not unreasonable.
National broadband access? $65 billion is less than 2/3rds what was estimated to close the broadband access gap, especially but not only for tribal America.
Water? ASCE’s 2020 economic study, “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Water Infrastructure: How a Failure to Act Would Affect the U.S. Economic Recovery” found that the annual drinking water and wastewater investment gap will grow to $434 billion by 2029. Additionally, the cost to comply with the EPA’s 2019 Lead and Copper Rule is estimated at between $130 million and $286 million. $55 billion isn't going to cut it.
Bridges? ASCE's quadrennial report card says that fixing the backlog of bridge problems would cost $123 billion.
But the American Road & Transportation Builders Association goes higher, saying it would cost $171 billion to make fixes to 235,000 bridges that need some kind of repair.
Kind of makes the $40 billion for bridges look like the chump change that it is.
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