US President Joe Biden last night embraced a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Senate deal to renew the nation's roads, bridges and highways and help stimulate the economy.
The deal comes as a major breakthrough on one of Joe Biden's key domestic policy goals.
"We have a deal," Biden told reporters, flanked by Democratic and Republican senators who wrote the infrastructure proposal that followed months of White House negotiations with politicians.
The plan's $579 billion in new spending includes major investments in the nation's power grid, broadband internet services and passenger and freight rail.
But it does not contain other key priorities for Biden and progressive Democrats, such as new spending on home health care and child care, which Biden pitched as "human infrastructure."
"This deal means millions of good-paying jobs and fewer burdens felt at the kitchen table.
"But it also signals to ourselves, and to the world, that American democracy can deliver, and because of that it represents an important step forward for our country," Biden said at the White House.
The eight-year proposal contains $109 billion for roads, bridges and major projects.
It also includes $73 billion for power infrastructure; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail; $65 billion for broadband access; $49 billion for public transit and $25 billion for airports, according to a White House statement.
The investments would be paid for through more than a dozen funding mechanisms, including $100 billion in estimated tax revenues from a ramp-up in enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service, unused Covid-19 aid money and unemployment insurance funds returned by US states.
Biden, seeking to fuel economic growth and address income inequality after the coronavirus pandemic, had initially proposed spending about $2.3 trillion.
But Republicans had chafed at his definition of infrastructure, which included fighting climate change and providing care for children and the elderly.
A major sticking point had been how to pay for th einvestments. Biden has pledged not to increase taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 a year, while Republicans are determined to protect a 2017 cut in corporate taxes.
Shares in CRH were higher in Dublin trade today after news that the deal was reached. CRH is the the biggest producer of asphalt for highway construction in the US.
