You’ve waited for it; now it’s here: “American Jobs Plan” in draft format. Take a look at it. See if you can get even in the same zip code with “infrastructure projects!” You can’t. of the $2.2 trillion, if your generous you can only add up to approximately $600 billion in infrastructure. The remainder, dictated in the draft bill, will be disbursed when, how, and to whom at the sole discretion of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Biden said the plan will invest about $2 trillion this decade. He dubbed his proposal the “American Jobs Plan,” which marks the first part of a two-part economic plan. Some programs and investments did not include a specific price tag. They are added at the end.
Infrastructure Plan:
$621 billion in transportation infrastructure and resilience.
- $115 billion to modernize bridges, highways, roads, and main streets most in need of repair. This includes funding to improve air quality, limit greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce congestion.
- $20 billion to improve road safety.
- $85 billion to modernize existing transit systems.
- $80 billion to address Amtrak’s repair backlog.
- $174 billion investment in the electric vehicle market.
- $25 billion for airports.
- $17 billion in inland waterways, coastal ports, land ports of entry, and ferries.
- $20 billion for a new program that will reconnect neighborhoods cut off by historic investments and ensure new projects “increase opportunity, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access.”
- $25 billion for a dedicated fund to support ambitious projects that have tangible benefits to the regional or national economy but are too large or complex for existing funding programs.
- $50 billion in dedicated investments to improve infrastructure resilience.
- Building a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030.
- Electrify at least 20 percent of the yellow school bus fleet through a new Clean Buses for Kids program.
$111 billion to replace 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines to ensure clean, safe drinking water.
$100 Billion to build high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach 100 percent coverage.
$100 Billion to re-energize America’s power infrastructure to form a more resilient grid that will place the United States “on the path to achieving 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035.”
- This will include a $10 billion investment to “put a new, diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands and waters … and advancing environmental justice through a new Civilian Climate Corps”
$213 billion to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than two million affordable and sustainable places to live.
- Includes establishing a $27 billion Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to mobilize private investment into distributed energy resources; retrofits of residential, commercial, and municipal buildings; and clean transportation.
$100 billion to upgrade and build new public schools through $50 billion in direct grants and an additional $50 billion leveraged through bonds.
$12 billion in community college infrastructure. States will be responsible for using the dollars to address both existing physical and technological infrastructure needs.
$25 billion to help upgrade child care facilities and increase the supply of child care in areas that need it most.
$18 billion for the modernization of Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics.
$10 billion in the modernization, sustainability, and resilience of federal buildings,
$400 billion toward expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities.
$180 billion investment in R&D and the technologies of the future:
- Includes $35 billion in the full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs that address the climate crisis and position America as the global leader in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs. This includes launching ARPA-C to develop new methods for reducing emissions and building climate resilience, as well as expanding across-the-board funding for climate research.
- $15 billion in demonstration projects for climate R&D priorities, including utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture, and storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles.
- 15 billion in creating up to 200 centers of excellence that serve as research incubators at Historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions to provide graduate fellowships and other opportunities for underserved populations, including through pre-college programs.
$300 billion to strengthen manufacturing supply chains for critical goods
- $50 billion to create a new office at the Department of Commerce dedicated to monitoring domestic industrial capacity and funding investments to support the production of critical goods.
- $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research, as called for in the bipartisan CHIPS Act.
- $30 billion over 4 years to create U.S. jobs and prevent the severe job losses caused by pandemics through major new investments in medical countermeasures manufacturing; research and development; and related bio preparedness and biosecurity.
- $46 billion investment to jumpstart clean energy manufacturing through federal procurement.
- $52 billion in domestic manufacturers.
$100 billion in proven workforce development programs targeted at underserved groups and getting students on paths to careers before they graduate from high school.
- $5 billion over eight years in support of evidence-based community violence prevention programs. Biden is calling on Congress to invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and justice-involved youth and in improving public safety.
- $48 billion in American workforce development infrastructure and worker protection. This includes registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, creating one to two million new registered apprenticeships slots, and strengthening the pipeline for more women and people of color to access these opportunities through successful pre-apprenticeship programs such as the Women in Apprenticeships in Non-Traditional Occupations.
Some of the programs or proposals that don’t involve money, or did not have a specific funding amount:
– Calling on Congress to tackle long-term unemployment and underemployment through a new subsidized jobs program.
– Calling on Congress to eliminate sub-minimum wage provisions in section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act and expand access to competitive, integrated employment opportunities and fair wages for workers with disabilities.
– Calling on Congress to ensure all workers have a free and fair choice to join a union by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and guarantee union and bargaining rights for public service workers.
– Asking Congress to tie federal investments in clean energy and infrastructure to prevailing wages and require transportation investments to meet existing transit labor protections.
– Calling on Congress to provide the federal government with the tools it needs to ensure employers are providing workers with good jobs—including jobs with fair and equal pay, safe and healthy workplaces, and workplaces free from racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination and harassment.
– Biden is calling on Congress to take immediate steps to spur the construction and rehabilitation of homes for underserved communities.
– Calling on Congress to pass the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for the creation of a new federal tax credit that will produce new equity investment dollars for the development and renovation of 1-4 family housing in distressed urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods.
– Calling on Congress to quadruple support for the Manufacturing Extensions Partnership—increasing the involvement of minority-owned and rurally-located small-and-medium-sized enterprises in technological advancement.
– Calling on Congress to ensure that new jobs created in clean energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure are open and accessible to women and people of color.
– Calling on Congress to invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and justice-involved youth and in improving public safety.
– The President’s plan will invest in vulnerable communities through a range of programs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program, new initiatives at the Department of Transportation, a bipartisan tax credit to provide incentives to low- and middle-income families and to small businesses to invest in disaster resilience, and transition and relocation assistance to support community-led transitions for the most vulnerable tribal communities.
Summary
Of course, this is NOT a formal bill, (yet to be drafted) and certainly is NOT the final format in which the “Infrastructure” bill will be, but it’s the only template we have right now to start digging into.
I challenge you to download the .pdf version linked below and email the heck out of it to everyone you know.
We discovered yesterday that the Senate Parliamentarian cleared the way for Senate leadership to pass this legislation using the “reconciliation process,” formerly known as the “nuclear option.” That means, Democrats no longer see the need to attract the necessary ten Republican members of the Senate to vote with Dems to pass a bill.
What does that mean? Without the 60-vote requirement, it means that a piece of legislation that fits within the reconciliation process can be passed with a simple majority vote. There are 50 Democrats and 50 Republican Senators. And in the case of a 50-50 tie, Vice President Kamala Harris will cast the deciding vote, meaning this bill will be certain to pass and be signed into law.
How to stop it? Reach out to YOUR U.S. Senators and demand that their votes on this issue express the wishes of your state’s voters solely and NOT the wishes of any political party. Secondly, you can spread it around. Download the synopsis draft of it (linked below) and email the heck out of it to every person you know. Ask them to contact their Senators as well.
Americans have a continuous uphill climb to achieve any legislation in Congress that is for the American people until this administration breathes its last breath. And that’s four years.
To download the draft of the Infrastructure bill, click on this link: 
To Download Today’s (Wednesday, April 7, 2021) “TNN Live” Show, click on this link:
