On August 10, 2021, the United States Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) as a replacement to the U. S. House version of the Invest in America Act (House Resolution 3684). The Senate passed the amendment to the original U.S. House bill by a vote of 69 yeas to 30 nays. Both Texas Senators Cornyn and Cruz voted against the bill. Here’s a link to the full text of the version that passed the Senate.
Senators and U.S. Representatives often brag about the length of their legislation. Perhaps to demonstrate how hard they work? The news media dutifully reports the page count. Are we supposed to be impressed by the length of a bill rather than its content and its outcomes?
The IIJA is just over 2,700 pages long, but the pages are formatted with extra-wide margins and the text is formatted double or triple spaced.
I guess to make it easier to markup the document if one is “old-school” and use a pen on a hard copy printout to make changes. These bill documents (except the table of contents) typically only have about 170 words per page!
Large, impactful bills like this one usually include some interesting details that are worth reading and considering. I did some word searches and skimming to find a few sections I think my readers might appreciate. I’m providing a very short summary of a few of the most interesting and noteworthy sections.
DIVISION A – SURFACE TRANSPORTATION
TITLE I – FEDERAL AID HIGHWAYS
Section 11135 Updates to Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
Directs the Secretary of Transportation to update the manual to provide for the protection of vulnerable road users (a motorist, passenger, public transportation operator or user, truck driver, bicyclist, motorcyclist, or pedestrian, including a person with disabilities) and supporting the safe testing of automated vehicle technology.
Section 11206 Increasing safe and accessible transportation options.
Defines “complete streets standards or policies” as those that ensure the safe and adequate accommodation of all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation users, children, older individuals, individuals with disabilities, motorists, and freight vehicles. Directs states and metropolitan planning organizations to use 2.5% of federal funds to develop and adopt complete street standards or policies; develop a complete streets prioritization plan; develop transportation plans with integrated active transportation infrastructure and facilities to enhance bicyclist and pedestrian safety. Defines a local match requirement of 20%.
Sec. 11405. Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) program.
Creates a $7.3 billion in formula funding and $1.4 billion in competitive grant funding program for planning and projects intended to enhance the resilience of transportation infrastructure against emergency events. Defines “resilience improvement” as “the use of materials or structural or nonstructural techniques, including natural infrastructure, that allow a project to better anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and to withstand and respond to disruptions; and to be better able to continue to serve the primary function of the project during and after weather events and natural disasters for the expected life of the project; or that reduce the magnitude and duration of impacts of current and future weather events and natural disasters to a project; or have the absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, and recoverability to decrease project vulnerability to current and future weather events or natural disasters.”
Sec. 11406. Healthy Streets program.
Establishes a $500 million discretionary grant program to deploy “cool pavements” (pavements with reflective surfaces that reduce surface temperatures), install porous pavements, and expand tree cover to improve air quality, reduce impervious surfaces, reduce stormwater runoff and flood risks, and diminish heat impacts on infrastructure and road users. Grants can fund urban heat island assessments; tree canopy assessments; equity assessments that include mapping tree canopy gaps, flood-prone locations, and urban heat island hot spots as compared to pedestrian walkways, public transportation, low-income communities, and disadvantaged communities; project design; and project construction.
Sec. 11518. Permeable pavements study.
Directs the Secretary of Transportation to gather information on the effects of permeable pavements on flood control, research to fill data gaps, develop performance models, and to catalog best practices for design. The report must be published one year after enactment.
Sec. 11520. Study on stormwater best management practices.
Requires the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences to estimate stormwater pollutant loads from highways and pedestrian facilities to inform the development of appropriate total maximum daily loads (TMDL’s) as defined in the Clean Water Act and its implementing regulations; provide recommendations for stormwater management approaches and TMDL compliance strategies; and to publish a report in 18 months.
DIVISION D – ENERGY
TITLE III – FUELS AND TECHNOLOY INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS
Subtitle A – Carbon Capture, Utilization, Storage, and Transportation Infrastructure
Creates a carbon capture commercialization program with $2.5 billion in potential financial support during fiscal years 2022 through 2026. Provides an additional $5 million for secure geologic carbon storage projects. Provides an additional $3.5 billion for projects that remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.
DIVISION E – DRINKING WATER AND WASTEWATER INFRASTRUCTURE
TITLE II – CLEAN WATER
Sec. 50205. Clean Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Program.
Creates a clean water infrastructure resilience and sustainability grant program for the purpose of increasing the resilience of publicly owned treatment works to natural hazards or cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
CONCLUSION
Depending upon your perspective and industry, there are likely other noteworthy provisions to consider. The list above is not intended to provide a full summary of the bill. It just mentions a few provisions that caught my eye.