New Senate highway bill may be part of something bigger

Bakersfield.com

By Jessica Wehrman CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

May 24, 2021

At first glance, the 549-page, $303.5 billion bipartisan highway bill that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will mark up Wednesday appears to be a direct descendant of the bill the committee approved in 2019.

Both included climate titles. Both emphasize resilience — 57 mentions in the 2019 bill and 75 in the newest iteration. Both include a new grant program promoting resilient infrastructure. Both are bipartisan.

The difference is that this year, with a renewed focus on infrastructure, the bill, or some version of it, may become a cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal and one of the few bright spots of bipartisanship in what has become an increasingly tense process.

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