Bipartisan infrastructure bill finally heads to President
Rural America will benefit from $110 billion for roads and bridges, $2 billion for broadband and $17 billion for ports and waterways.
Ending months of delay, the bipartisan infrastructure bill cleared the House Friday night by a vote of 228 to 206, with 13 Republicans voting in favor of the $550 million infrastructure investment. For agriculture, it includes funding for ports and waterways, repairing roads and bridges and rural broadband.
While speaking on passage early Saturday morning, President Joe Biden says it is "finally infrastructure week" and a "monumental step forward as a nation."
Biden spent much of his summer negotiating with senators from both sides of the aisle to broker the deal that cleared the Senate in August by a vote of 69-30, however, it then stalled in the House while Democrat leaders tried to negotiate its “human infrastructure” package now referred to as the Build Back Better Act. In action Friday, the House members approved a rule allowing for future debate of that bill, but did not have the votes to pass the two bills together.