A massive infrastructure bill backed by Oregon 4th District Representative Peter DeFazio is on the House floor this week.
DeFazio who chairs the House Transportation and infrastructure committee, says the $1.5 trillion proposal called Moving America Forward, would rebuild the nation’s infrastructure with an emphasis on resiliency and green materials
“The immediate impact of this bill will be a recovery.” DeFazio says it will also help dig the nation out of its economic downturn caused by the pandemic. “Everything we have done so far is to mitigate the economic damage. This is the first bill targeting recovery-- putting people back to work. A lot of jobs aren’t coming back. And these aren’t just construction jobs. They’re design, they’re engineering. They’re small business, they’re minority enterprise set-asides.”
Republicans were not involved in writing the bill and they’ve criticized it for being another “Green New Deal”. Debate is expected to wrap up this week before the House takes its 4th of July break.
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