FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2023
A new interactive website from the White House showcases about 32,000 infrastructure projects that are underway thanks to the Investing in America Agenda. The map reportedly illustrates the impact of the “record-breaking levels” of public and private investment across states and territories.
The agenda includes investments from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, as well as private sector investments mobilized by the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the American Rescue Plan.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is mobilizing historic levels of private sector investments in the United States, bringing manufacturing back to America after decades of offshoring, and creating new, good-paying jobs, including union jobs and jobs that don’t require a college degree,” wrote the administration.
“His Investing in America agenda is rebuilding our roads and bridges using Made in America materials, built by American workers. And it’s transforming our country for the better—reaching communities in every corner of the United States, including those that have too often been left behind.”
Users on the site can look at a national map or scroll through projects by state, including documents for private investments of more than $100 million. It also reportedly provides additional economic data and details at the state level.
According to reports, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian said that the site shows that Biden’s agenda is “underway and working.”
From day one, my Investing in America agenda has been about rebuilding our economy from the middle out and bottom up.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 6, 2023
That's why our Administration is bringing record-breaking investments to the United States.
Take a look: https://t.co/jjdrPpL6Ga. pic.twitter.com/W2gTAlDRpo
“We want people to be able to see what’s happening in their communities,” Quillian said.
“You can go down to every city, town, anywhere on the map and find out exactly how much we've invested so far, what the investment is for and how it's going to affect your community,” Biden said of the new website during a meeting at the White House.
A general overview breaks down the funding announced so far by category, including manufacturing and clean energy ($479 billion); and rebuilding infrastructure (over $220 billion). Additionally, the website notes the current unemployment rate in the United States at 3.6%, with 13.1 million new jobs created.
According to the White House, the website will be updated regularly to reflect recent investments, projects and announcements. Additionally, later this month, a second installment of the Investing in America tour will take place with members of the Biden Administration.
ASCE Infrastructure Map
In November, the American Society of Civil Engineers also released a new virtual map that features projects getting underway thanks to funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law. In partnership with Accelerator for America, the map arrived in time for the one year anniversary of the passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
According to ASCE, communities in all 50 states are seeing the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure law, as funds go towards fixing potholes, rehabilitating bridges, replacing lead pipes and cleaning up the environment.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Transportation had announced the first round of grants from the law’s competitive Bridge Investment Program and the Federal Highway Administration had released nearly $60 billion in funding for 12 formula programs under the law, in addition to awarding more than $2.2 billion for RAISE program transportation projects and $1.5 billion for the INFRA competitive grant program.
The bipartisan infrastructure law reportedly invests in all 17 of the infrastructure categories included in ASCE’s 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, with a cumulative grade of C-. The new map tool pairs with statistics from the Infrastructure Report Card, as well as testimonials from elected officials discussing the importance of the law to their city or state’s community.
According to reports, the map is part of a larger effort from ASCE to track all investments and rulemakings by infrastructure sector for their 150,000 members working in communities across the country. The bipartisan infrastructure law implementation map can be found here.
Recent White House Infrastructure Plans
Last month, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a new set of plans to pass as a part of bipartisan permitting reform legislation. The plans arrive almost one year after the White House's Permitting Action Plan was released.
According to the White House, these actions are anticipated to create new union jobs, combat climate change, grow the economy and lower costs. The Administration has outlined a list of recommendations that could help speed up the permitting process, including:
The Biden-Harris Administration also states that necessary permits, reviews and approvals must be robust and completed within a reasonable timeframe. To aid in this process, the administration urges Congress to act and improve coordination of federal data sharing, expand the use of programmatic and tiered reviews and reduce the length of federal decision documents.
Streamlining this process will also reportedly include the enhancement of data collection. The White House notes that the systems used by many agencies today are either outdated or rely on paper systems. To combat this, the White House also reports it is pushing for the development of automated, joint electronic permit application for federal agencies.
Additionally, the process for streamlining reportedly includes actions to recruit and retain a permitting workforce and to provide financial benefits for states that are willing to adopt best practices to accelerate the delivery of public and privately funded projects.
Tagged categories: Digital tools; Economy; Funding; Government; Government contracts; Green Infrastructure; Infrastructure; Infrastructure; Ongoing projects; Online tools; President Biden; Program/Project Management; Technology
