(Bloomberg) — A group of lawmakers and the White House struck a $550 billion deal to revitalize the nation’s transportation and utility infrastructure after weeks of negotiations, meeting a key goal of President Joe Biden: a large, bipartisan bill.
The Senate plans to vote to begin consideration of the legislation, which has yet to be completed, as soon as Wednesday night. The release of the bill text, as well as additional debate and votes could occur in the coming days.
Here’s what’s in the deal:
Roads, Bridges
The deal calls for spending $110 billion on roads, bridges and other major projects. This includes $40 billion for bridge repairs and replacement, as well as $17.5 billion for major projects. It also would reauthorize the surface transportation program for the next five years.
Public Transit
The plan includes $39 billion to modernize transit and improve accessibility. In addition, the deal would continue existing transit programs for five years as part of the surface transportation reauthorization.
Railways
The deal would allocate $66 billion to Amtrak for maintenance, to upgrade tracks in the Northeast Corridor and bring rail service — including high-speed rail — to other areas of the country.
Power Grids
The deal includes $73 billion for power grid upgrades, including building thousands of miles of new transmission lines for renewable energy and research for new technologies like nuclear reactors and carbon capture.
Electric Vehicles
The bill would spend $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of charging stations for electric vehicles to help accelerate the adoption of non-fossil fuel cars.
Electric Buses
The plan includes $5 billion for new school buses, although the program would allow half of that to go toward buses that run on natural gas or diesel. The plan also includes $2.5 billion for ferries.
Airports, Waterways
The plan would provide $25 billion for airport repairs and efforts to reduce congestion and emissions. That includes encouraging the use of electric and other low-carbon technologies. It would also invest $17 billion in port infrastructure.
Resilience, Climate Change
The deal includes $50 billion to help communities ward off cyber attacks and the effects of climate change. The funds include money to protect against droughts and floods.
Drinking Water
The package spends $55 billion to improve drinking water, including dedicated funding to replace lead pipes and dangerous chemicals.
Broadband Internet
The plan would invest $65 billion in high-speed internet to ensure that every household can access reliable broadband service.
Environmental Spending
The package has $21 billion dedicated for environmental remediation to address past pollution that harms public health.
The plan also includes $1 billion to reconnect communities that have been divided by past infrastructure projects, such as highways splicing through established areas.
Transportation Safety
The plan would spend $11 billion on transportation safety, including programs to reduce crashes and fatalities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.
Revenue Raisers
Here are some of the major ways that lawmakers have agreed to offset the cost of the spending:
- $205 billion from using unspent pandemic relief funds appropriated in earlier legislation;
- $56 billion in additional tax revenue from the extra economic growth generated from the infrastructure improvements;
- $50 billion from recouping unemployment benefits claimed by fraudsters;
- $49 billion for delaying the Medicare rebate rule enacted under former President Donald Trump;
- $53 billion from unspent unemployment benefits from states that ended the enhanced payments early;
- $28 billion from increasing tax reporting rules for cryptocurrency investors;
- $21 billion from fees on government-sponsored enterprise;
- $20 billion from spectrum auction sales; and
- $13 billion from a Superfund fee on corporations that pollute.
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