President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled his nearly $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, dubbed the American Jobs Plan.
While Biden's plan – one he called "a once in a generation investment in America" – boasts a hefty price tag for American taxpayers, less than 10% of the proposed funding would be allocated to improve the nation’s highways and bridges.
The U.S. infrastructure recently earned a score of "C-" from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the nation's infrastructure quality has dropped from fifth to thirteenth in the world over the last 15 years.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House Wednesday morning, the American Jobs Plan would invest $621 billion in transportation infrastructure. However, only $135 billion of that would directly go toward repairing roads and bridges and improving highway safety.
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The plan proposes to use $115 billion to modernize 20,000 miles of highway, roads and main streets, repair the 10,000 worst small bridges and "fix the ten most economically significant bridges in the country in need of reconstruction." An additional $20 billion is set aside “to improve road safety for all users, including increases to existing safety programs and a new Safe Streets for All program to fund state and local ‘vision zero’ plans and other improvements to reduce crashes and fatalities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.”
