Released November 09, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Congress' passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, H.R.3684, near midnight on November 5, means tens of billions of dollars will be finding its way to companies in the Power and Industrial Manufacturing industries over the next five years. That legislation, passed this summer by the Senate in a bipartisan 69-30 vote, is expected to be signed in the coming days by President Joe Biden.
The far more controversial part of the president's agenda, the $1.75 trillion expansion of the social safety net, is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week. That bill includes about $550 billion over 10 years for clean energy and climate programs. The Senate is evenly divided, 50-50, between Democrats and Republicans. It remains unclear if the Democrats can find a way to address opposition to it from senators Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona). For more on that, see October 25, 2021, article - Biden Scrambles to Find Carbon Cuts as Clean Electricity Plan Blocked.
On Friday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the infrastructure bill with 13 House Republicans voting in favor and six progressive House Democrats opposing the measure. The final vote was 228 in favor, 206 opposed.
"Finally, infrastructure week," Biden said November 6. "We did something that's long overdue, that long has been talked about in Washington. I know we're divided, I know how mean it can get, and I know there are extremes on both ends that make it more difficult than it's been in a long, long time. But I'm convinced: If we let the American people know that we're committed to enhancing their ability to make their way, we'll all do better."
He said the legislation was "a once-in-a-generation investment that's going to create millions of jobs modernizing our infrastructure--our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a whole range of things--to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity. And it puts us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with China and other large countries, and the rest of the world."
The White House said the new law would support more than 700,000 jobs, including 175,000 manufacturing jobs, 175,000 construction jobs and 100,000 transportation jobs. In his November 6 appearance with the news media, Biden said, there are "good-paying, middle-class union jobs that can't be outsourced." Many of these jobs do not require a college degree.
Passage of the bill followed a difficult election night for Democrats, who saw Republicans win the Virginia governorship, come very close to winning the New Jersey gubernatorial race, and take a slew of down-ballot races in the off-year election. Several observers said election night losses galvanized House Democrats to move the infrastructure after months of wrangling between progressives and moderates in their caucus. In the House, most of the progressive wing of the Democratic party ended up voting for the measure once an explicit commitment was made to bring the more-contentious $1.75 trillion "social safety net" measure up for a vote the week of November 15.
Roughly half of the infrastructure bill, about $650 billion, already was part of a congressional transportation package. Roughly $550 billion in new funding was added to the transportation bill to broaden it to cover other types of infrastructure. The five-year measure would be funded in part by reprogramming $210 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief aid and $53 billion in unemployment insurance aid some states have halted, along with an array of smaller pots of money, like petroleum reserve sales and spectrum auctions for 5G services.
According to an analysis of the legislation by The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of billions of dollars in the $1.2 trillion package will be allocated to states using a traditional formula based on their populations, gas-tax revenue and other factors. But this bill also includes about $120 billion that will be disbursed in dozens of competitive grant programs decided by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) (Washington, D.C.). The DoT will pick recipients from applications by state and local governments.
The legislation allocates funding the following infrastructure industries as follows:
"These funds will upgrade our power infrastructure, by building thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewables and clean energy, while lowering costs," the White House said. "And it will fund new programs to support the development, demonstration and deployment of cutting-edge clean energy technologies to accelerate our transition to a zero-emission economy."
Separate from that, about $5 billion will go to build out the nation's network of electric vehicle charging stations. A further $2.5 billion in federal grant funding could go toward electric-vehicle charging or alternatives, such as hydrogen-fueling infrastructure. Several billions have been set aside to purchase of electric and hybrid school buses.
The legislation also includes about $50 billion to make communities and infrastructure "more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks." The funding will go to "protect against droughts, heat, floods and wildfires, in addition to a major investment in weatherization," to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings. The White House backgrounder said the legislation "is the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history."
The legislation also will invest $21 billion to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land, and cap orphaned oil and gas wells. "These projects will remediate environmental harms, address the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities, create good-paying union jobs, and advance long overdue environmental justice," the administration said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
The far more controversial part of the president's agenda, the $1.75 trillion expansion of the social safety net, is scheduled to be voted on by the House of Representatives next week. That bill includes about $550 billion over 10 years for clean energy and climate programs. The Senate is evenly divided, 50-50, between Democrats and Republicans. It remains unclear if the Democrats can find a way to address opposition to it from senators Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona). For more on that, see October 25, 2021, article - Biden Scrambles to Find Carbon Cuts as Clean Electricity Plan Blocked.
On Friday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the infrastructure bill with 13 House Republicans voting in favor and six progressive House Democrats opposing the measure. The final vote was 228 in favor, 206 opposed.
"Finally, infrastructure week," Biden said November 6. "We did something that's long overdue, that long has been talked about in Washington. I know we're divided, I know how mean it can get, and I know there are extremes on both ends that make it more difficult than it's been in a long, long time. But I'm convinced: If we let the American people know that we're committed to enhancing their ability to make their way, we'll all do better."
He said the legislation was "a once-in-a-generation investment that's going to create millions of jobs modernizing our infrastructure--our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a whole range of things--to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity. And it puts us on a path to win the economic competition of the 21st century that we face with China and other large countries, and the rest of the world."
The White House said the new law would support more than 700,000 jobs, including 175,000 manufacturing jobs, 175,000 construction jobs and 100,000 transportation jobs. In his November 6 appearance with the news media, Biden said, there are "good-paying, middle-class union jobs that can't be outsourced." Many of these jobs do not require a college degree.
Passage of the bill followed a difficult election night for Democrats, who saw Republicans win the Virginia governorship, come very close to winning the New Jersey gubernatorial race, and take a slew of down-ballot races in the off-year election. Several observers said election night losses galvanized House Democrats to move the infrastructure after months of wrangling between progressives and moderates in their caucus. In the House, most of the progressive wing of the Democratic party ended up voting for the measure once an explicit commitment was made to bring the more-contentious $1.75 trillion "social safety net" measure up for a vote the week of November 15.
Roughly half of the infrastructure bill, about $650 billion, already was part of a congressional transportation package. Roughly $550 billion in new funding was added to the transportation bill to broaden it to cover other types of infrastructure. The five-year measure would be funded in part by reprogramming $210 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief aid and $53 billion in unemployment insurance aid some states have halted, along with an array of smaller pots of money, like petroleum reserve sales and spectrum auctions for 5G services.
According to an analysis of the legislation by The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of billions of dollars in the $1.2 trillion package will be allocated to states using a traditional formula based on their populations, gas-tax revenue and other factors. But this bill also includes about $120 billion that will be disbursed in dozens of competitive grant programs decided by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) (Washington, D.C.). The DoT will pick recipients from applications by state and local governments.
The legislation allocates funding the following infrastructure industries as follows:
- $110 billion to improve roads and bridges
- $66 billion to improve rail service in the Northeast Corridor. Most of this money will to go reduce backlogged work at Amtrak
- $65 billion for rural broadband access
- $55 billion for water and wastewater projects, of which $15 billion will go to replace lead pipes at homes and another $10 billion to address water contaminated by "forever chemicals," specifically per- and polyfluoroalkyl, a large family of chemicals known as PFAs
- $39 billion to enhance public transportation
- $25 billion to improve runways, gates, taxiways and terminals at airports
- $17 billion to enhance port infrastructure and waterways
"These funds will upgrade our power infrastructure, by building thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewables and clean energy, while lowering costs," the White House said. "And it will fund new programs to support the development, demonstration and deployment of cutting-edge clean energy technologies to accelerate our transition to a zero-emission economy."
Separate from that, about $5 billion will go to build out the nation's network of electric vehicle charging stations. A further $2.5 billion in federal grant funding could go toward electric-vehicle charging or alternatives, such as hydrogen-fueling infrastructure. Several billions have been set aside to purchase of electric and hybrid school buses.
The legislation also includes about $50 billion to make communities and infrastructure "more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks." The funding will go to "protect against droughts, heat, floods and wildfires, in addition to a major investment in weatherization," to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings. The White House backgrounder said the legislation "is the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history."
The legislation also will invest $21 billion to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land, and cap orphaned oil and gas wells. "These projects will remediate environmental harms, address the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities, create good-paying union jobs, and advance long overdue environmental justice," the administration said.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
