Joe Biden wants to spend $1.3 trillion on infrastructure as president, aiming to reduce carbon emissions, create jobs and shore up the ailing Highway Trust Fund with "new revenues" in a plan released Thursday that's reminiscent of the Obama years.
Biden’s 12-page plan promises to “ensure new revenues are secured to stabilize the Highway Trust Fund” but doesn’t specify where those revenues would come from or how he would get political consensus for them.
In many ways it's also a throwback to the administration of President Barack Obama, with planks related to “complete streets,” repairing existing infrastructure before building new and calling for investments in transit and high-speed rail. The plan’s goal of working directly with cities, instead of always going through state departments of transportation as an intermediary, is another throwback.
Biden proposes spending $50 billion his first year in office, if elected, on repairing existing roads and bridges. Another $10 billion over 10 years would go to building transit in high-poverty areas. He’d put $1 billion a year into a grant program to help cities transition to automated vehicles. He’d double funding for BUILD and INFRA grants, increase funding for the Army Corps of Engineers and spend all harbor maintenance fees on their intended purpose.