The White House on Tuesday announced plans to spend $5.8 billion on clean water infrastructure around the country. The funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, which provided upwards of $50 billion for water-related projects. With Tuesday’s announcement, the Environmental Protection Agency has now declared how it will use $22 billion of that funding.
Projects receiving federal funds are located in every state, the White House said, and will focus on things like replacing lead water pipes, upgrading water treatment plants and removing known contaminants from water supplies. The EPA has launched a new map that tracks the projects: Investing in America’s Water Infrastructure Storymapv.
Separately, the Biden administration announced Monday that is awarding a $1.5 billion grant to chipmaker GlobalFoundries as part of an effort to boost high-tech manufacturing in the U.S. An additional $1.6 billion in loans will be made available to the company, and the funds are expected to enable GlobalFoundries to triple its manufacturing capacity in New York state, among other things.
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose state will benefit significantly from the money, said the federal funding will anchor a $12 billion investment by GlobalFoundries in the U.S., bringing 9,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent factory jobs. “The bang for the buck that the federal government is investing is huge,” Schumer said, per The New York Times. “This shows our best days are not over. We can compete.”
