Press Releases

Today, Congressman Richard E. Neal voted to create millions of good-paying union jobs with a once-in-a-century investment in rebuilding infrastructure in Massachusetts, including roads and bridges, transit, rail, clean drinking water and wastewater systems and high-speed broadband networks.  The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will repair and modernize crumbling and outdated infrastructure across the nation, ensuring all American communities have the infrastructure to succeed in the 21st Century economy and ending bottlenecks that add needless delays and costs for businesses bringing products to market and families traveling to school or work.

“Our nation’s crumbling and outdated infrastructure weakens our economy, hurts families, and causes added costs and delays for American businesses bringing their goods to market,” said Congressman Neal, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. “Democrats are delivering a transformational and bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create good-paying jobs here in Massachusetts, strengthen our economy, secure cleaner air and water, and make our communities a better place to live and work by bringing our infrastructure into the 21st century.

Together, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act are estimated to create an average of 2 million jobs each year over the next decade.

In the wake of the pandemic, poor infrastructure has struggled to keep up with a sharp increase in consumer demand – resulting in added costs for businesses and delays for consumers.  The United States ranks 13th globally in terms of the quality of our infrastructure, and the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the condition of our infrastructure a C-.  As the economy continues its strong recovery, President Biden and the Congress are seizing this historic moment to Build Back Better: improving infrastructure in every state in the union, growing the economy and helping Americans get back to work, while advancing justice and opportunity for all.

This Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will:

• Rebuild roads and bridges nationwide, including the largest bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system seven decades ago;
• Deliver clean drinking water to ten million families and more than 400,000 schools and child care facilities nationwide with the largest-ever investment in American water infrastructure to replace lead pipes and service lines across the nation;
• Help clean up legacy pollution, which is an important step in advancing environmental justice;
• Expand access to reliable high-speed internet to help more families get online to work and learn; 
• Make historic improvements to public transit, with the largest federal investment in American history and the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak; and
• Support action to address the climate crisis, making down-payments on clean energy transmission, a clean and resilient electric grid, electric vehicle infrastructure and more.

“If we want to build a stronger economy for working families and the middle class, we can’t just go back to how things were before the pandemic struck,” Congressman Neal continued.  “That is why President Biden and Democrats in Congress remain committed to Building Back Better with a stronger, fairer, more competitive and more sustainable economy.  The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is a crucial down-payment on this vision by getting millions of American workers back on the job – and alongside the Build Back Better Act, we are forging once-in-a-generation progress for nearly every Massachusetts family.”

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act now goes to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

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