The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved the $1.5 trillion Moving Forward Act, an infrastructure plan that would provide hundreds of billions of dollars for projects to fix roads and bridges, upgrade transit systems, expand interstate railways, and dredge harbors, ports and channels. The bill also provides more than $100 billion to expand internet access for rural and low-income communities, as well as $25 billion to modernize the U.S. Postal Service’s infrastructure and operations.
The act made it through by a 233-188 vote, which went mostly along party lines. It is now on its way to the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has refused to schedule a floor debate.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a sponsor of the legislation, called the act a “transformational investment in American infrastructure that will create millions of jobs,” while Republicans, who have bristled publicly since the bill was first introduced, continued to voice opposition to what they say is a unnecessary focus on climate over infrastructure.
“Instead of seeking bipartisan solutions, this bill adds $1.5 trillion to the nation’s debt and disguises a heavy-handed and unworkable Green New Deal regime of new requirements as an ‘infrastructure bill,” said Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, the top Republican on the transportation panel, according to NBC News.
The White House has threatened to veto the measure should it reach the president's desk, pulling the wind out of any sail raised in the Senate. In a statement earlier this week, the White House said the bill “is heavily biased against rural America,” and ”fails to tackle the issue of unnecessary permitting delays” that have long impeded infrastructure projects.
Source: NBC News
