Source: United States Senator for North Dakota John Hoeven
WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan infrastructure package that does not raise taxes:
“This legislation is actually the regular highway bill with additional support for traditional hard infrastructure like roads, bridges, rail, airports, and broadband. Also, importantly it does not raise taxes and has pay-fors including repurposing of COVID-19 funds.”
“This infrastructure bill is now decoupled from the separate tax and spend bill proposed by the Democrats. That reckless tax-and-spend bill has not been passed by either the House or the Senate. We strongly oppose that legislation and will continue working to stop it. Americans are already facing higher costs due to record high inflation, and the partisan tax-and-spend proposal will only exacerbate the problem. As debate continues on the tax-and-spend proposal, which has not passed in either the House or the Senate, we’ll continue to work to defeat it,” said Hoeven.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill builds on the regular highway bill with an additional $550 billion for core infrastructure in North Dakota and across the nation, including:
- $413.5 billion for roads, bridges and highways.
- $66 billion for passenger and freight rail.
- $65 billion to expand broadband infrastructure.
- $47.2 billion for cybersecurity and flood and drought mitigation.
- $16 billion for ports and waterways
- $12 billion to further efforts to “crack the code” on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) including for carbon capture large-scale pilot projects and carbon capture demonstration projects, CCUS research and development as well as loan assistance for CCUS infrastructure.
Specific benefits to North Dakota include:
- $2.5 billion for constructing flood mitigation projects across the country, which would help with projects like the Red River Valley permanent flood protection and Minot region flood protection project.
- $1.7 billion over 5 years for North Dakota’s roads, bridges, and highways, about $500 million more than North Dakota received over 5 years under the FAST Act, including $225 million for bridge construction and rehabilitation.
- Reforming the federal permitting process in line with the Trump Administration’s One Federal Decision rule to reduce the timeline for larger infrastructure projects.
- Authorizing over $200 million for clean water in North Dakota through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
- The DRIVE-Safe Act, legislation Hoeven cosponsored that would help address the shortage of truck drivers by establishing a pilot program to allow 18-20 year olds to obtain a commercial driver’s license and truck goods across state lines.
- The HAULS Act, legislation the senator cosponsored to provide needed relief to livestock haulers by expanding the hours of service agricultural exemption to exclude a 150 air mile radius around the destination of the trip.
- The REGROW Act, legislation introduced by Senator Kevin Cramer and cosponsored by Senator Hoeven to plug and remediate the nation’s orphaned wells.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill is supported by more than 100 groups, including the American Farm Bureau, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and Associated General Contractors.
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