After months of tense negotiations, the House of Representatives has passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, 228-206, fulfilling a major priority for President Biden's domestic agenda and cementing a political victory for Democrats.
The measure includes significant investments in roads, bridges, railways and broadband internet. Here’s a closer look at what’s included.
It passed late Friday night largely along party lines, with 13 Republicans joining 215 Democrats in support of the legislation. But the bill also saw six progressive Democrats vote against it because a larger social spending measure failed to secure enough support for a floor vote on Friday.
Voting against the measure were the two Republicans who represent Bloomington-Normal: Reps. Rodney Davis and Darin LaHood.
Davis, from Taylorville, called it “reckless, multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spending legislation.”
“I’m beyond disappointed that President Biden and Democrats in Congress paired bipartisan infrastructure investment to their reckless, multi-trillion-dollar, tax-and-spending proposal,” Davis said in a statement. “At a time when inflation is persisting and the prices of goods and services continue to rise, we cannot afford pouring over three-trillion dollars of new government spending into the economy, particularly after the Democrats passed their nearly-two-trillion-dollar spending bill earlier this year.
“It’s time for Congress to stop the spending blowout and take action to address the supply chain crisis and get inflation under control. That’s what American families need.”
LaHood, from Dunlap near Peoria, said “the infrastructure bill and reconciliation package are linked and cannot be viewed separately.”
“A vote for the infrastructure bill is a vote that paves the way for an extreme reconciliation spending bill that includes crippling tax hikes that will kill American jobs and send them overseas, hammer small businesses as they struggle to recover from COVID-19, and worsen the labor shortage while driving up inflation on working families,” LaHood said in a statement.”
"If Democrats wanted this to be a bipartisan process with robust debate and input from both parties, they would have brought the infrastructure bill forward through regular order when it passed the Senate in August. Instead, they tied the two bills together to accomplish a radical social agenda that will leave future generations of taxpayers footing the bill.
"I have consistently advocated for responsible infrastructure investment in our roads, bridges, inland waterways, and rural broadband. I will continue to advocate for the transportation and infrastructure needs of my district, but I will not take part in helping the Democrats and Speaker Pelosi pass their irresponsible and partisan reconciliation package,” LaHood continued.
One of the 13 Republicans voting for the package was Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Bloomington-Normal native and Illinois State University grad who now represents parts of northern Illinois.
“Not everything has to be existentially partisan, that’s a relatively recent phenomenon,” he tweeted.
