Senate Passes $550 Billion Infrastructure Bill

With support from 17 Republicans and 50 Democrats, the Senate passed a bill that includes:

• $110 billion for roads and bridges;
• $11 billion for “road safety,” which probably means anti-auto programs like complete streets;
• $39 billion for transit;
• $66 billion for rail (mostly Amtrak);
• $15 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure and electric buses for transit agencies;
• $1 billion for “reconnecting neighborhoods,” another anti-auto program;
• $25 billion for airports;
• $17 billion for ports;
• $55 billion for drinking water;
• $65 billion for broadband; and
• $73 billion for clean energy infrastructure.

When compared with President Biden’s original $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, this is a lot less for transit and reconnecting communities, somewhat less for Amtrak, and less for just about everything else except airports. Many of the things that were in that proposal that some people argued weren’t really infrastructure were completely left out, but many of those things will be included in another $3.5 trillion bill Democrats are proposing. Republican supporters of the infrastructure package argued that they needed to support the $550 billion bill in order to have any hope of fending off the $3.5 trillion bill.

The bill will give Amtrak all the money that it said in 2010 it would need to bring the Northeast Corridor into a state of good repair, including replacing Hudson River and Baltimore tunnels and various bridges along the route. However, it will have only about half the money it said it needed for this work in a new plan released earlier this month.

In other words, if you are a rail fan and hoping Amtrak will have some money for new routes promised in the Amtrak ConnectsUs plan, you can forget about it. It seems likely that almost all of the money in the infrastructure bill will go to the Northeast Corridor.

Before the pandemic, transit was carrying almost nine times as many passenger miles each year as Amtrak, and its state-of-good-repair backlogs are even greater than Amtrak’s. But Republicans decided to take a relatively hard line against transit compared with Amtrak, leading the bill that passed yesterday to have less than half as much transit money as Biden’s original bill, where Amtrak gets more than 80 percent of the White House proposal.

Of course, it will all be wasted, whether going for Amtrak or transit. Even “just” $39 billion for transit is three times the amount the federal government normally spends each year on transit. No doubt Honolulu’s rapid transit agency hopes to get the $3 billion it needs to finish the most expensive transit line ever built on a per capita basis. Austin, Seattle, and other cities can look forward to getting federal funds for obsolete light-rail lines that might not even require a 50 percent local match.

The House is almost certain to pass this infrastructure bill. Left up in the air is what happens to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee five-year reauthorization bill. That bill, which the House approved early this month, will have to be approved in some form by the Senate just to continue regular spending out of the Highway Trust Fund. But the House bill included many of the same increases for Amtrak and transit that are in the infrastructure bill. It would also limit spending on increases in highway capacity, which could be economically devastating to many fast-growing cities that need new roads to keep up with growth.

It seems likely that Senate Republicans will insist on taking these things out of the bill. If not, then the 17 Republicans who thought they were doing taxpayers a favor by supporting “only” $550 billion in new deficit spending on infrastructure, most of which is for obsolete transportation or other things that aren’t really needed, will realize they were rolled by the Democrats.