Democrats unveil $760 billion infrastructure package with focus on transportation, environment
Democrats have more going on than just impeachment.
As the Senate's impeachment trial of President Trump continues Wednesday, House Democrats are set to unveil a massive plan to rebuild America's infrastructure. It calls for $760 billion in spending over five years, with large chunks of that dedicated to improving transportation systems, railways, and nationwide broadband access, The New York Times reports.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), one of the leaders who developed the plan, calls it a "definitive departure from our last 70 years, since Eisenhower," per Politico. Instead of highway-centric infrastructure bills of the past, this one will include "$329 billion for investment in transportation systems, including improving safety measures for bicyclists and pedestrians," the Times writes. Another $105 billion will go to transit agencies, and $55 billion is allocated for improving and expanding railways nationwide. And in a diversion from traditional roads-and-bridges infrastructure, a massive $86 billion will go toward expanding broadband access.
Along with additional funds for clean water preservation and toxic chemical cleanups, the public transit-focused bill is aimed at "defossiliz[ing] transportation" and meeting "the goals of the Green New Deal," DeFazio said. Wednesday's plan comes about a year after President Trump and Democratic leaders met to agree on Trump's $2 trillion infrastructure deal, though that went bust when Trump stormed out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
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