One Big Thing: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework
Roads, Bridges, and Major Projects
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will invest $110 billion of new funds for roads, bridges, and major projects, and reauthorize the surface transportation program for the next five years building on bipartisan surface transportation reauthorization bills passed out of committee earlier this year. This investment will repair and rebuild our roads and bridges with a focus on climate change mitigation, resilience, equity, and safety for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians. The bill includes a total of $40 billion of new funding for bridge repair, replacement, and rehabilitation.
Why it matters: This is the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system.
Safety
The deal invests $11 billion in transportation safety programs, including a new Safe Streets for All program to help states and localities reduce crashes and fatalities in their communities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.
Why it matters: This will more than double funding directed to programs that improve the safety of people and vehicles in our transportation system, including highway safety, truck safety, and pipeline and hazardous materials safety.
Public Transit
The deal invests $39 billion of new investment to modernize transit, and improve accessibility for the elderly and people with disabilities, in addition to continuing the existing transit programs for five years as part of surface transportation reauthorization. It will repair and upgrade aging infrastructure, modernize bus and rail fleets, make stations accessible to all users, and bring transit service to new communities. It will replace thousands of transit vehicles, including buses, with clean, zero emission vehicles.
Why it matters: It will benefit communities of color since these households are twice as likely to take public transportation and many of these communities lack sufficient public transit options.
EV Infrastructure
The bill invests $7.5 billion to build out a national network of EV chargers. The bill will provide funding for deployment of EV chargers along highway corridors to facilitate long-distance travel and within communities to provide convenient charging where people live, work, and shop.
Why it matters: Federal funding will have a particular focus on rural, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach communities.
Electric Buses
The deal will deliver thousands of electric school buses nationwide, including in rural communities, helping school districts across the country buy clean, American-made, zero emission buses, and replace the yellow school bus fleet for America’s children. The deal invests $2.5 billion in zero emission buses, $2.5 billion in low emission buses, and $2.5 billion for ferries.
Why it matters: These investments will drive demand for American-made batteries and vehicles, creating jobs and supporting domestic manufacturing, while also removing diesel buses from some of our most vulnerable communities.
Reconnecting Communities
Too often, past transportation investments divided communities – like the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans or I-81 in Syracuse – or it left out the people most in need of affordable transportation options. In particular, significant portions of the interstate highway system were built through Black neighborhoods. The program will fund planning, design, demolition, and reconstruction of street grids, parks, or other infrastructure through $1 billion of dedicated funding.
Why it matters: The deal creates a first-ever program to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure.
Airports, Ports, and Waterways
The bill invests $17 billion in port infrastructure and $25 billion in airports to address repair and maintenance backlogs, reduce congestion and emissions near ports and airports, and drive electrification and other low-carbon technologies.
Why it matters:
Resilience and Western Water Infrastructure
Includes funds to protect against droughts and floods, in addition to a major investment in weatherization. People of color are more likely to live in areas most vulnerable to flooding and other climate change-related weather events.
Why it matters: The deal makes our communities safer and our infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber attacks, with an investment of over $50 billion.
High-Speed Internet
The deal is a historic investment in broadband infrastructure deployment, just as the federal government made a historic effort to provide electricity to every American nearly 100 years ago. It will also help close the digital divide by passing the Digital Equity Act, ending digital redlining, and creating a permanent program to help more low-income households access the internet.
Why it matters: This $65 billion investment ensures every American has access to reliable high-speed internet.
Environmental Remediation
The deal invests $21 billion in environmental remediation, creating good-paying union jobs in hard-hit energy communities. The bill includes funds to clean up superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land and cap orphaned gas wells.
Why it matters: This largest ever historic investment addresses legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities and advances economic and environmental justice.
Power Infrastructure
The deal upgrades our power infrastructure, building thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to facilitate the expansion of renewable energy. It creates a new Grid Deployment Authority, invests in research and development for advanced transmission and electricity distribution technologies, and promotes smart grid technologies that deliver flexibility and resilience. It invests in demonstration projects and research hubs for next generation technologies like advanced nuclear reactors, carbon capture, and clean hydrogen.
Why it matters: This $73 billion investment is the single largest investment in clean energy transmission in American history.