President Biden's $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation, stuck on Capitol Hill, appears to be closer to passing. Officials say the bill is showing signs of moving forward following a series of closed-door negotiations.
Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, the chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, said the bill could be ready for his panel to process and send to the full House this week.
Sticking points have been language in the bill about spending for social issues and climate change. Many question what certain provisions such as prescription drug pricing has to do with infrastructure.
"Fixing prescription drug pricing has consistently been a top issue for Americans year after year, including the vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans who want to see a change because they simply cannot afford their medications," said Senator Charles Schumer.
Progressives also want to include changes to the immigration.
Those in the construction industry have been keeping a close eye on developments of this bill, after all, a key word in the legislation is "build". Construction companies build stuff, so what could this legislation do to help companies on worksites?
The plan calls for $621 billion of spending on transportation infrastructure which will include highways, roads, railways, and airports.
Part of that infrastructure includes a pivot towards clean energy incentives including building half a million charging stations, and replacing gasoline school buses with electric.
The Green New Deal plan of attack also targets the Department of Energy with an objective of transitioning the country to 100% carbon-free electricity production by 2035 by establishing a "Grid Deployment Authority".
Also in the BBB plan is $213 billion for building and retrofitting more than 2 million homes and $40 billion to improve public housing. $111 billion is slated for modernizing drinking water, wastewater, and storm water systems. $45 billion would go towards replacing lead water piping in the country.
$100 billion would be pumped into upgrading public schools, $25 billion to upgrade childcare facilities, and $12 billion to improve community colleges.
Money that would go towards non-infrastructure projects includes $180 billion on research and development, including substantial expenditures in clean energy and basic climate research. It would also spend $50 billion on semiconductor technology and $300 billion for manufacturing.
The proposed funding of the bill will be by raising the corporate tax rate, partially reversing the Trump Administration's "Made in America Tax Plan".
The BBB calls for the corporate tax rate to increase from 21% to 28%, bringing it closer to the pre-reform tax rate of 35%. The tax plan would aim to raise over $2 trillion by 2036.
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