The House on Thursday passed a roughly $760 billion, five-year transportation and water package that some Democrats say could be used to flesh out the framework of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, adding another layer of intrigue and potential complexity to the ongoing effort to develop a legislative package that can get through Congress.
The 221-201 vote fell largely along party lines, with two Republicans — Christopher Smith of New Jersey and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania — joining Democrats in favor of the bill.
What’s in the bill: The measure, called the INVEST in America Act, authorizes $343 billion for roads, bridges and safety programs, including $4 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure; $109 billion for transit, which represents an increase of 140%, according to The New York Times; $95 billion for passenger and freight rail, including a tripling of Amtrak funding to $32 billion; $117 billion for drinking water infrastructure; and more than $51 billion for wastewater infrastructure.
“Amendments adopted over two days of debate added at least $44 billion to the bill’s price tag, mostly to support the adoption of electric vehicles,” The Washington Post reports.
In all, the package reportedly would represent a 50% increase over current spending levels and provide more funding to address climate change that the bipartisan Senate package that President Joe Biden has endorsed.
What’s not in the bill: The legislation does not lay out how the new spending will be paid for, with those details to be laid out in separate legislation yet to be crafted by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Why it matters: House Democratic leaders have pitched the bill as the basis for fleshing out the infrastructure package being developed in the Senate. “I’m suggesting that substantial amounts of the policy in our bill should be negotiated by the White House and the Senate and the House to be part of that bipartisan proposal,” Rep. Peter DeFazio, the lead sponsor of the bill and chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said. He called his bill “ the transformative policy that the Biden administration wants.”
But so far there are more questions than answers about where the House legislation goes from here. “Just how the House Democratic vision of infrastructure will be melded with the deal struck by five Republicans and five Democrats in the Senate is anything but clear,” Jonathan Weisman of the Times reports. “The House bill and the Senate deal are not far apart in spending numbers on traditional infrastructure. Both efforts take up Mr. Biden’s call to replace all of the country’s lead drinking water pipes. But while the Senate framework only lays down broad categories of spending, the House bill extends surface transportation policies and user funds that are set to expire Oct. 1. It also established new policies like water bill assistance, buy American requirements and a pilot program for low-income transit access.”
The return of earmarks: The package marks the first time the House has passed legislation containing earmarks since lawmakers reinstated them earlier this year, according to Reuters. The legislation includes nearly 1,500 earmarks totaling almost $5.7 billion — including more than 400 projects from Republicans valued at about $17 billion.
Even so, nearly all Republicans opposed the package, which failed to muster the type of bipartisan backing such transportation measures usually get. Republicans instead slammed the spending in the package, its focus on transit and its climate measures, derisively labeling it the “Green New Deal and Inflation Transportation Act.”
What’s next: After the bill passed, the House adjourned for its July 4 recess. The Senate is also away. Both chambers will have lots of work to do to get an infrastructure package passed before the current surface transportation law expires at the end of September.