House Passes $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

Congress passed the much-awaited infrastructure bill on Friday, which includes $550 billion in spending for new infrastructure and $110 billion for improvements to roads and bridges. Overall, the $1.2-trillion package is about $1.1 trillion less than President Joe Biden's March proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan.

It also includes funds for transportation safety, reconnecting neighborhoods divided by highways and other infrastructure, and the creation of the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy to facilitate supply chain efficiencies, according to news reports. In addition, the legislation adds $100 billion in discretionary funding through grant programs to address further supply chain efficiencies, Supply Chain Dive reported.

As reported by Construction Dive, "Permitting delays can be a major impediment to construction projects, as permit reviews can involve up to 30 statutes and a dozen departments and agencies. A helpful element called One Federal Decision (OFD), which aims to streamline and shorten the process from up to 10 years to two years, made it into the final version of the bill."

Biden is expected to sign the legislation no later than November 15.