The U.S. Senate passed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday 69-30 with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill would provide $550 billion to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges, invest in broadband, water and sewer plants, and consolidate the nation’s response to a changing climate.
Both Vermont senators, Democrat Patrick Leahy and independent Bernie Sanders, voted in favor, as did 19 Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Vermont is expected to receive $1.4 billion to fortify roadways, $225 million for bridge replacement and repairs, $83 million to improve public transportation, $21 million to expand the state’s electric vehicle charging network, and at least $100 million to help provide broadband coverage throughout the state. The bill also would provide $40 million for water quality projects in the Lake Champlain Basin, Leahy’s office said.
The bill was painstakingly hammered out by a group of Republican and Democratic senators in conjunction with White House officials. To achieve a compromise that would draw in at least 10 Republicans, Democrats ultimately made some concessions. As originally proposed, the legislation called for $2.3 trillion in infrastructure investments, including lead pipe replacements and more expansive climate initiatives.
In a press release, Leahy praised the Senate for working together to pass the legislation. “This is the way the Senate is supposed to work. This hasn’t been easy, but it’s important to Vermont and to our country,” Leahy said.
On the Senate floor, Leahy highlighted the significance of the bill’s effort to address the climate crisis for Vermonters. “Later this month will be the 10-year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene. The devastation that occurred as the storm swept through our state showed that we must build back better to make our communities and critical infrastructure more resilient to extreme climate events,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont’s lone House member, said he was optimistic about the bill’s prospects in the House and looked ahead to the potential passage of another infrastructure bill, worth $3.5 trillion, that Senate Democrats have said they will attempt to pass via reconciliation — a process that allows budget legislation to be decided on a simple majority vote.
“Passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill increases our chances of passing reconciliation,” Welch said. “There is something [the two pieces of legislation] have in common; we fix a school that’s good for all kids and all parents, we fix a pothole, those kids are gonna be safer. It really is the reason there is so much bipartisan support throughout the country.”
Welch said he is eager to push funding for school facilities — which is not currently in the bill — and other “human infrastructure” measures. “[The bipartisan bill] doesn’t address everything, so my hope is that we can either improve that infrastructure bill in the House or we can include some of those concerns in the reconciliation bill,” Welch said.
Sanders took to the Senate floor shortly after the vote to praise President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York for their leadership on the infrastructure bill. He then quickly turned his focus to the budget reconciliation bill, which as Budget Committee chair, he played a central role in crafting.
Sanders touted the bill’s key provisions, including an expansion of Medicare, robust investment in affordable housing, universal pre-K, two years of free community college and ambitious steps to combat climate change.
“At a time when California is on fire, when Oregon is on fire, when Greece is burning and when countries throughout the world are experiencing unprecedented drought, which will clearly impact food production,” Sanders said. “This legislation begins the process of combating climate change so that our kids and grandchildren can live in a country and a planet which is healthy and habitable.”
“It would be immoral and an absolute dereliction of our responsibilities as elected officials to do anything less,” he said.
The next step for the bipartisan infrastructure bill is a vote in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said the bipartisan bill won’t be considered until the reconciliation bill passes in the Senate.
