Washington trying to pair “hard” and “soft” infrastructure spending bills

It is a sprint to the finish for President Joe Biden’s signature legislative priority, a massive $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” package.

A bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes and broadband is hanging by a thread as Democrats wrangle with a much more expensive human infrastructure package favored by liberals but panned by conservatives.

Whatever happens with each, expect it to happen quickly once Washington returns from its summer recess.

Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, has tweeted: “Speed is Dems’ best friend. The longer this lags, the harder/smaller it gets.”

The partisan spending plan for the next decade drastically expands government programs and aid for Americans. It was engineered by Congress’s most liberal voices, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). But it faces huge roadblocks.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, W. Va., voiced opposition to his party's $3.5 trillion spending package, saying in a Wall Street Journal opinion column that Congress “should hit a strategic pause” on. “I, for one, won't support a $3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of additional spending,” Manchin wrote.

But the president isn’t taking Manchin at face value. “Joe, at the end, has always been there,” Biden told CNN recently. “I think we can work something out, and I look forward to speaking with him.”

The House passed a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that would pave the way for a vast expansion of social safety net and climate programs. It passed because, in spite of some internal rifts among Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., kept her coalition together to pass this central piece of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda with a 220-212 vote along strict party lines.

The bill provides huge investments in education, child care, health care and paid leave, and tax increases on wealthy people and corporations.

After Congress returns from its summer recess, the plan is to pair this bill and an already passed $1 trillion “hard infrastructure” bill using reconciliation measures— meaning a simple majority.

“Today is a great day of pride for our country and for Democrats,” Rep. Pelosi said on the House floor. “Not only are we building the physical infrastructure of America, we are building the human infrastructure of America, to enable many more people to participate in the success of our economy and the growth of our society.”

Not everyone agrees. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and other big business groups are vowing to defeat the larger $3.5 billion bill, while hoping to send the $1 trillion infrastructure bill to the president’s desk.

“The House’s $3.5 trillion tax and spend budget that, if enacted, will dramatically expand the size and scope of government through record levels of inflationary spending and impose massive tax increases will halt America’s fragile economic recovery,” Chamber President and CEO Suzanne Clark said. “The Chamber will do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job killing reconciliation bill from becoming law.”

But of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, Clark added: “Anyone who needlessly delays or tries to kill this bill is holding back our nation. I don’t know how anyone could go home and explain to their constituents that they voted to block money to fix a crumbling bridge or to replace lead water pipes running into schools. It is past time to turn the long-overdue promises of infrastructure investment into a reality.”

Some examples of what’s in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill:

• -Ports of Entry. There’s $3.5 billion for improvements to 30 land ports of entry on both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Of that, $285 million would be used to upgrade five ports of entry in Vermont, including $170 million to renovate the Vermont port in Highgate Springs at the northern terminus of Interstate 89, which links the United States with Saint-Armand and Philipsburg, Quebec; and
• -The Vail Pass (named for highway architect Charley Vail in 1978) west of Denver in Colorado. When this stretch of I-70 was completed in the 1970s, only 2.2 million people lived in Colorado. Now Colorado boasts 5.7 million population

With only two lanes, the pass can’t accommodate all that traffic. A crash that might not cause a backup elsewhere can force hours-long closures here. State officials estimate that each hour results in $1 million in economic losses, and between 2014 and 2017 alone, the pass was shut down for 1,548 hours. 

“It’s kind of a lifeline,” Vail police officer Bill Clausen told the Washington Post. “Plenty of people come from the west, but it’s the main thoroughfare for the higher population areas in the east. They need that route; there’s no other way. We have crashes in the middle of the day and the middle of the night. All year long.”

The Jasper Ocean Terminal, which will have the capacity to transfer 8 million, 20-foot cargo containers a year, just a few miles downs from the Port of Savannah, the nation’s fourth-largest.

The idea is to handle some of the world’s largest container “Panamex” ships currently going through the Panama Canal and to help meet growing cargo demand in the Southeast.

The project’s development involves Jasper County, S.C., as well as the state port authorities in South Carolina and Georgia. But it, depends in part on substantial improvements to ground transportation infrastructure such as area highways and rail lines—exactly the type of funding available in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill already passed by the Senate.

This includes things like the Port Investment Program that includes $2.25 billion over five years, or $450 million annually, for the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP), which provides grants to improve facilities, operations, and intermodal connections near or within seaports, inland ports, and Great Lakes ports. The Jasper Ocean Terminal is part of this. 

And it also provides a boost to multimodal freight grant programs: given the complex nature of many freight projects, robust competitive grant funding has been a longstanding priority for groups such as the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors (CAGTC). The $1 trillion jobs act responds to that priority by providing an unprecedented $20.5 billion over five years for three major multimodal discretionary programs.

The grant programs are funded at $8 billion over five years. Whereas the FAST Act limited funding for non-highway freight projects to approximately 11 percent of total funding. While CAGTC has advocated for elimination of this cap, tripling the amount of funding available for multimodal freight projects is “noteworthy,” the group says.

In the freight formula program, the bill recognizes each state’s freight needs vary in size.  CAGTC supports federal programs seeking to address these needs through a combination of funding distribution methods. While discretionary programs are critical in supporting large, multijurisdictional projects, the National Highway Freight (freight formula) Program offers necessary additional resources to address statewide freight projects. The Act provides increased funding levels for the freight formula program and raises the amount available to multimodal projects from 10 percent annually to 30 percent, advancing state freight investment and planning efforts.

“Freight is such an important aspect to many states with regards to economic development, industry, jobs, equity and safety. Understanding the movements of freight is critical to long-term success for not only our state but also regional and national efforts. said Dan Pallme, director of freight & logistics for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Bridge Funding: the legislation provides $40 billion over five years for bridge improvement projects through new competitive and formula funding programs. Many bridges across the country are in poor condition, resulting in weight restrictions or closures that strain freight movement by increasing travel times and congestion. Investments in bridge rehabilitation and replacement projects, particularly on designated Interstate and U.S. highway bridges, will improve national and regional freight efficiency as well as roadway safety.

“The question of whether to build a new bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis isn't one of want but of need,” said Bobby White, Chief Public Policy Officer for the Greater Memphis Chamber.

Memphis is dubbed “America's Distribution Center” and is home to the world's busiest cargo airport, the nation's third-busiest trucking corridor and to homegrown Fortune 500 shipping company FedEx.

Memphis moves packages anywhere and everywhere, the world over. But despite Memphis' global value, the city only has two, aging bridges: the 48-year-old I-40 bridge and the 72-year-old I-55 bridge.

“The supply chains of the nation and the world cannot afford to have Memphis operating with a single bridge for an extended period, as it had to do for more than two months after a critical fracture was discovered in an I-40 bridge truss in May,” White said. “To deliver the reliability citizens need, our nation must make America's River Crossing a priority.”