Fresh off passage of the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, President Joe Biden is assembling the next big White House priority, a $3 trillion infrastructure package. Biden met privately late Monday with Senate Democrats as Congress began laying the groundwork with legislation as part of Biden’s “Build Back Better” campaign promise, reports The New York Times.
While the goal is a bipartisan package, Democrats in Congress have signaled a willingness to go it alone if they are blocked by Republicans. Biden’s advisers recommend that the effort be broken into pieces, with Congress tackling infrastructure before turning to a second package that would include more people-focused proposals.
An infrastructure package would include roughly $1 trillion for roads, bridges, rail lines, electrical vehicle charging stations and the cellular network, among other items. No part of the proposal has been finalized and the eventual details of any spending could change, notes The New York Times.
That plan would spend heavily on clean energy deployment and the development of other “high-growth industries of the future” like 5G telecommunications, according to sources. It includes money for rural broadband, advanced training for millions of workers, and one million affordable and energy-efficient housing units.
The overall price tag first reported Monday by The New York Times has been circulating on Capitol Hill for weeks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Democratic committee chairmen earlier this month to start working with their Republican counterparts to begin “to craft a big, bold and transformational infrastructure package.”
Biden is expected to roll out his budget in the weeks ahead as Congress presses forward on the infrastructure package, which lawmakers have said could be ready by summer.
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