Will Infrastructure Bill Improve Agriculture and Rural America?

WASHINGTON, DC – Debate continues in the country whether the recently-passed $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill will truly benefit traditional infrastructure.

The package crafted by a bipartisan group of Senators and passed by the upper chamber (69-30) in August cleared the House earlier this month (228-206) with 13 Republicans in the lower chamber helping to pass it. Yet, ironically, most Republicans joined the most liberal members in the House in voting against the measure – albeit for different reasons.

According to the American Soybean Association (ASA), the bill can help with transportation infrastructure critical to U.S. agriculture. Specifically, the group identifies significant investments in roads and bridges, rail, waterways, and broadband.

For roads and bridges, the bill includes the five-year surface transportation reauthorization legislation, invests $110 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, and other major projects – including $40 billion targeted explicitly for bridge repair and replacement, and targets grant programs that assist states and counties in prioritizing projects of regional significance.

FOr rail, the legislation provides $66 billion in new spending to address infrastructure needs nationwide, includes the rail reauthorization legislation, and makes additional investments in programs supporting safety enhancements and general infrastructure improvements for freight railroads.

Waterways are also are a target of new funding as the bill invests $17.3 billion in new spending for ports and waterways, allocates $9.55 billion to the Army Corps’ Civil Works mission, with more than $5 billion to address the backlog of authorized projects, and $4 billion over three years for dredging federal navigation projects and repairing damage to Corps projects caused by natural disasters.

Finally, for rural broadband, the bill invests $65 billion to help bridge the digital divide, including $40 billion to allow states to deploy access (with a minimum download/upload build standard of 100/20 megabits per second), $2 billion more for USDA rural broadband programs, and a “middle-mile” state grant program for the construction and improvement of middle-mile infrastructure (the dedicated line that transmits the signal to and from an internet Point of Presence).

The government will pay for the spending by authorizing $550 billion in new spending over five years. The rest of the funding comes from the already-obligated budget allocated annually for highways and other infrastructure projects. The new spending will be offset by using unspent pandemic relief funding ($210 billion), drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (up to $6.1 billion), recouping fraudulent unemployment insurance claims (up to $53 billion), requiring brokers to report cryptocurrency transactions (up to $28 billion), as well as spectrum auctions for 5G services.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)