Biden to sign infrastructure bill into law on Monday - Spectrum News NY1

After months of negotiations, the wait is finally over: President Joe Biden will sign the $1.2 infrastructure bill — one of the key legislative goals of his economic plan — into law on Monday.

What You Need To Know

• President Joe Biden will sign the $1.2 infrastructure bill into law at a White House ceremony on Monday afternoon


• Ahead of the announcement, Biden tapped former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu as the point person responsible for coordinating the implementation of the $1.2 trillion investment


• The law, formally known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will set into motion the flow of billions of dollars to states and localities to improve bridges and roads, install electric vehicle charging stations, expand railways, replace lead pipes, expand broadband and other public works projects


• Sixty-three percent of Americans support the massive public works investment, according to a new ABC News-Washington Post poll

The law, formally known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will set into motion the flow of billions of dollars to states and localities to improve bridges and roads, install electric vehicle charging stations, expand railways, replace lead pipes, expand broadband and other public works projects.

On Sunday evening, ahead of the announcement, Biden tapped former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu as the point person responsible for coordinating the implementation of the massive investment.

The news about Landrieu’s new role, listed by the White House as Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Landrieu, who previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, is widely credited as playing a major role in the city’s recovery from the devastating storm.

"As Mayor of New Orleans, Landrieu took office at a time when the city’s recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina had stalled,” the White House wrote of Landrieu in a release. “He hit the ground running, fast-tracking over 100 projects and securing billions in federal funding for roads, schools, hospitals, parks and critical infrastructure, turning New Orleans into one of America’s great comeback stories.”

“I am thankful to the president and honored to be tasked with coordinating the largest infrastructure investment in generations,” Landrieu said in a statement released by the White House.

“Our work will require strong partnerships across the government and with state and local leaders, business and labor to create good-paying jobs and rebuild America for the middle class,” he added. “We will also ensure these major investments achieve the President's goals of combating climate change and advancing equity."

Biden will sign the bill into law Monday in a White House ceremony that will feature both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, mayors, governors, labor union and business leaders. Biden will be joined by the bipartisan lawmakers who helped craft the final infrastructure deal, negotiations that concluded in June.

The bill’s implementation comes at a time of sliding poll numbers for the Democratic president; Despite 63% of Americans showing support the infrastructure bill, according to a new ABC News-Washington Post poll, his approval numbers have fallen to 41%, making the implementation of this new spending crucial for Democrats hoping to hold on to both chambers of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.

Biden’s policies are indeed popular among a majority of Americans. Fifty-eight percent of Americans, according to the same ABC News-Washington Post poll, also support his sweeping $1.85 trillion Build Back Better bill, the companion legislation to the infrastructure bill which devotes spending to social programs and combatting climate change. The House is hoping to vote on that bill this week, and the White House expressed confidence that it will pass.

Although the White House had called passage of the infrastructure bill urgent, Biden waited to sign the legislation because many lawmakers were traveling this week, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, members of congress and a number of cabinet officials who were in Glasgow for the U.N. Climate Change Conference.

One question looming over the proceedings about the ceremony Monday is whether or not the Republicans who supported the bill will show up. Nineteen Republicans in the Senate voted for the bill when it passed the chamber in August, along with 13 members of the House GOP during

While Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have said they plan on attending, according to the Washington Post, the party’s leader in the chamber, Mitch McConnell, told a Kentucky radio station last week that “I've got other things I've got to do other than go to the signing ceremony.”

North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer, who supported the bill, will not be in attendance, per the Washington Post, but extolled the bill’s benefits for his state at a press conference last week.

“At the end of the day I work for the people of North Dakota, the employers and employees, and most importantly those that build out the infrastructure that moves commerce,” he said. “What I look for is opportunities where there are winners on all sides. And that’s what we have in this bill. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the right thing to do for North Dakota and our country.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that they invited a “broad group” of Republicans who played a key role in advancing the bill, adding: “The president looks forward to thanking them for their work, for working together to get this done for the American people.”

But Republicans have faced intense backlash for their support of the infrastructure measure, including from within their own party.

One prominent Republican, former President Donald Trump, blasted McConnell’s support of the bill in a statement.

“Why is it that Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan, and induced others in his Party to do likewise, when he was incapable of getting a great Infrastructure Plan wanting to be put forward by me and the Republican Party?” the 45th president wrote.

Some GOP lawmakers have even received death threats for their support of the bill. Michigan Rep. Fred Upton shared with CNN last week a threatening voicemail in which a caller referred to him a “f****** piece of s*** traitor,” adding: “I hope you die. I hope everybody in your f****** family dies.”

And in New York, a Long Island man was arrested for making a death threat against New York GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino, police said.

Murkowski, who recently announced she will seek re-election despite staunch opposition from Trump, called criticism of the bill from within her own party “petty.”

“This is about meeting our nation’s needs,” Murkowski said to the the Anchorage Daily News last week. “For those who, in my view, are going to be so petty that they would deny good, solid policy because they don’t want the person holding the keys to the White House today to be able to say they got that under their watch, what a shame on us that we’re not willing to put the priorities of the country first over the politics of this."

Spectrum News' Austin Landis contributed to this report.

source: https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/11/15/biden-infrastructure-white-house-law-mitch-landrieu

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