President Joe Biden will officially ring in infrastructure week, for real, when he signs the infrastructure bill Monday afternoon. The $1.2 trillion package contains $550 billion in new spending on road, bridges, ports, rail, and water systems. The new law is officially titled the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. (Or IIJA, which is much better than its former acronym, “BIF.”) If you are so inclined, you can read the whole thing—all 2,740 pages (but with huge margins and spacing). It is heavy on current fossil fuel-dependent infrastructure, with $110 billion for roads and bridges. In addition to broadband, it includes $55 billion for water; $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations; $39 billion for transit; $1 billion for Biden’s original $20 billion plan to “reconnect” communities of color; $66 billion for freight and passenger rail; $25 billion for airports; $73 billion to modernize the energy grid; and $21 billion toward environmental remediation. In addition, it includes $65 billion for broadband infrastructure, which has the potential to be a “game changer” with the $2 billion for rural communities split equally between a rural broadband construction program called ReConnect, which Rural Utilities Service at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will operate, and the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program run by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Monday, Nov 15, 2021 · 5:21:49 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter The White House just released this executive order from Biden detailing the priorities for the implementation of IIJA and establishing an Infrastructure Implementation Task Force to coordinate it. Read more