On November 15, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), enacting the legislation into law following a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the bipartisan infrastructure package passed 228-206. These final steps follow the August 10 U.S. Senate passage of the bill in a strongly bipartisan 69-30 vote.
The bipartisan infrastructure legislation provides $973 billion over five years from FY 2022 through FY 2026, including $550 billion in new investments for all modes of transportation, water, power and energy, environmental remediation, public lands, broadband and resilience. In addition to providing authorizations for a wide variety of programs, the IIJA also makes supplemental appropriations to several federal agencies:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Department of the Interior
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- U.S. Department of Transportation
Above baseline investments for sectors addressed in IIJA include:
- Transportation: $284 billion (U.S. Department of Transportation)
- Water: $55 billion (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
- Broadband: $65 billion (U.S. Department of Commerce)
- Energy & Power: $73 billion (U.S. Department of Energy)
- Environmental remediation: $21 billion (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
- Western water infrastructure: $8.3 billion (U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Department of Agriculture)
- Resiliency: $46 billion (U.S. Department of Homeland Security)
IIJA directs $284 billion in above baseline spending toward all modes of transportation and $266 billion for other infrastructure sectors. As is the case in the American Jobs Plan and past proposals from Senate Republicans, IIJA directs most of its investments – nearly 52 percent – toward modernizing and making improvements to transportation infrastructure, with the majority of funding reserved for highways, roads, and bridges:
- Roads & Bridges: $110 billion
- Transit: $39 billion
- Rail: $66 billion
- Safety: $11 billion
- Airports: $25 billion
- Ports & Waterways: $17 billion
- Electric vehicle chargers: $7.5 billion
- Electric buses: $7.5 billion
- Reconnecting Communities: $1 billion
It will take some time for the various federal agencies to deploy this funding and set the parameters and rules for the various programs. As one analysis notes: “IIJA isn’t a stimulus bill; it’s not a singular response to a specific economic crisis. IIJA represents a longer-term patient approach to rebuilding American competitiveness through infrastructure.” When new information on the IIJA comes to light that impacts Buckeye Hills members and Southeast Ohio, it will be added to our IIJA resource page.