Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives broke from the tradition of bipartisan action on transportation and infrastructure legislation when they unveiled a sweeping $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said combines the best of several existing proposals on roads, education, broadband and more, with a particular focus on clean energy, sustainability and climate resiliency, after a surface transportation bill, the Invest in America Act, was approved by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The committee completed action last Thursday after more than 24 hours of debate and the consideration of 177 amendments. Significantly, during the markup, the Committee adopted amendments from both sides of the aisle, including 34 Republican amendments and 23 Democrat amendments.

The bill invests $8.3 billion in a new carbon pollution reduction program; provides $6.3 billion through a new pre-disaster mitigation program; invests $105 billion in transit, $60 billion in rail, and over $7 billion in transportation alternatives; and provides $3.1 billion for alternative fuel charging stations and zero-emission buses, and creating a new green highway materials research, development, and deployment program. The new legislative package also will contain what is described as $70 billion for “clean energy.” The legislation will contain $25 billion for drinking water programs, $35 billion for health care infrastructure and $100 billion for broadband, “which will get us to 100 percent coverage.”