Cantwell, Senate Democrats Unveil Major Infrastructure Investment Proposal
Democratic plan would invest billions in repairing roads & bridges, rebuilding schools, invest in affordable housing, modernizing water & sewer systems, achieve universal high-speed internet, renovating VA healthcare facilities, and much more
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and seven of her Senate colleagues unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, paid for by rolling back Republican tax giveaways to corporations and the wealthy. The plan includes $140 billion to repair roads & bridges, $30 billion to modernize ports & waterways, and $115 billion to repair & improve public transportation.
“The state of Washington needs infrastructure. Whether it’s transportation, our ports, or our electricity grid, a major investment in infrastructure will grow our economy and create new jobs,” said Cantwell.
The Senate Democrats’ proposal would invest billions to modernize airports and waterways, invest in affordable housing, rebuild crumbling schools and VA hospitals, overhaul road and bridge repairs, equip rural communities with high-speed internet, revitalize main streets across the country, modernize the electric grid and energy infrastructure, and more.
“We need to upgrade our power lines, build smarter buildings, make an investment in the energy workforce, and to protect our grid from cybersecurity attacks. We learned from previous infrastructure investment in grid technology, $1 billion in investment created $7 billion in economic output and 50,000 new jobs,” Cantwell, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee, added.
The infrastructure proposal would also include measures from Senator Cantwell’s Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act to strengthen the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). The recently-enacted Republican tax bill reduced the number of affordable homes that will be produced with LIHTC by an estimated 235,000 units over the next ten years.
“The fact that the tax bill made affordable housing worse in the United States of America, when we have an opioid crisis and a homelessness crisis, I guarantee you that everyone is going to be talking about the fact that they made it harder, harder to deal with this crisis, and gave the money away to major corporations,” Cantwell added.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. must spend $1.6 trillion above current funding levels just to get its infrastructure to a state of good repair. The Senate Democrats’ historic proposal would invest just over $1 trillion in our country’s infrastructure and create more than 15 million jobs. The proposal would be paid for by returning the Republican tax giveaways for the wealthy to the American people.
A copy of the Senate Democrats’ full proposal can be found here.
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