A bill for has been introduced in the House of Representatives by the Democratic Party for a $494bn construction programme to renew the US’ infrastructure.
Part of the Invest In America act, funding would be split in four ways:
- $319bn would be spent on roads, including the repair of 47,000 structurally deficient bridges, th eeasing congestion and the reduction of carbon emissions.
- $105bn on mass transit, including new routes and more reliable services.
- $60bn on rail, including tripling funding for US railroad firm Amtrak over the next five years, $19bn on passenger rail improvement, modernisation and expansion.
- $10bn on vehicle safety.
The $494bn bill is due to be discussed on 17 June, and has to be approved be before 30 September.
Peter DeFazio, chair of the Democrats in the House, said: "The bulk of our nation’s infrastructure – our roads, bridges, public transit and rail systems, the things that hundreds of millions of American families and businesses rely on every single day – is not only badly outdated, in many places it’s downright dangerous and holding our economy back.
"Yet for decades, Congress has repeatedly ignored the calls for an overhaul and instead simply poured money into short-term patches. The result? We’re still running our economy on an inefficient, 1950s-era system."
The Associated General Contractors of America issued a press release welcoming the bill.
Image: The aftermath of the 2007 Interstate 35W collapse in Minnesota (Kevin Rofidal/Wikimedia Commons)
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This appropriation is long overdue and will put people to do work that has been ignored by a class of people who only want consumption of their products that are not wasteful and not .necessary.