Biden and Senators Reach Broad Infrastructure Deal
The New York Times
The bipartisan agreement is a significant victory, but Democratic leaders say it can pass only once a far larger social policy bill is complete.
WASHINGTON — President Biden and a bipartisan group of centrist senators reached a deal on Thursday for $1.2 trillion in investments to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, a victory for the White House but only the first lurch in what promises to be an arduous attempt to reshape the nation’s economic and social programs. The agreement on traditional infrastructure projects — roads, bridges, tunnels, rail and broadband — would be significant on its own, the first major increase of federal public works spending since President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic rescue plan. It would include some existing infrastructure programs, but also provide $579 billion in new money over eight years to patch cracking highways, rebuild crumbling bridges, speed rail traffic and more equitably spread high-speed internet access. The plan would also pour billions of dollars into waterways and coastlines washing away as a warming planet raises sea levels, and $7.5 billion into financing a half-million electric vehicle charging stations, all part of Mr. Biden’s climate pledges. It would be paid for in part with a $40 billion increase in the I.R.S. enforcement budget to bring in $140 billion in unpaid taxes, as well as repurposing unspent coronavirus relief funds, according to an outline provided by the White House.
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