A group of five Republican and five Democratic senators reached an agreement with U.S. President Joe Biden on investments in U.S. infrastructure. Over the next eight years, $1.2 trillion will be invested in the power grid, broadband Internet, charging stations for electric cars, roads, airports and bridges.
That was for the U.S. budget additional expenditures of 579 billion U.S. dollars. These include 109 billion for roads and bridges, 49 billion for public transport, 7.5 billion for charging columns and the same number of billions for electric buses. Broadband infrastructure is expected to account for $65 billion, and the power grid for $73 billion. The necessary money is to be taken, for example, from unused funds of the emergency plan against the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, from proceeds of the auction of the 5G frequencies and from taxes not paid so far
Trembling
However, the president is not certain that the package will make it through the legislative process unscathed, as Biden explained in a press conference. No one knows for sure how the senators will ultimately behave. A total of 20 senators were involved in the negotiations, he said. Biden said he had to cut back on investments in the railroad, for example. Instead of the $90 billion he had asked for, it will now be $66 billion.
Biden’s original investment plan called for spending a total of $2.6 trillion. The agreement that has now been reached does not include any of the previously envisaged expenditures for "human infrastructure" tax credits for clean energy, child care or nursing services.