Biden visits New Hampshire to promote $1 trillion infrastructure law

By Christian Wade | The Center Square

President Joe Biden visited New Hampshire on Tuesday to tout the newly signed $1 trillion infrastructure plan, saying it will improve the lives of tens of millions of working-class Americans while fixing roads, bridges and expanding internet access.

Speaking from a structurally deficient bridge over the Pemigewasset River in Woodstock, Biden said the massive spending bill will have a meaningful impact on Granite Staters from fixing potholed roads to ensuring clean drinking water.

President Joe Biden signing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Monday, November 15, 2021, on the South Lawn of the White House.

“Your life is going to change for the better,” the Democrat said in remarks broadcast by local TV stations. “This law is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”

Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday during a White House ceremony, and has kicked off a nationwide tour to highlight aspects of the plan.

New Hampshire stands to get more than $2.05 billion from the spending bill over the next five years, including at least $1.1 billion for highway upgrades and $225 million for bridge repairs, according to a breakdown provided by the White House.

The 82-year-old Woodstock span bridge where Biden spoke on Tuesday has been on the state’s “red list” of structurally deficient bridges for nearly eight years.

“The state has spent more than a quarter-million dollars on Band-aid repairs to this bridge alone,” Biden said. “Right now, there are 250 bridges in your state deemed structurally unsafe.”

The Granite State will also receive at least $418 million to improve water and sewer infrastructure and at least $100 million to help provide broadband coverage. Another $45 million will be available to improve rail service.

Ahead of Biden’s visit, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu sent a letter to Biden with a laundry list of concerns about the infrastructure bill and the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Sununu, who greeted Biden when he arrived at Manchester airport, pointed out that New Hampshire receives the lowest amount of money nationwide for highway programs under the federal government’s funding formula and called for a more equitable funding system. He asked Biden to ensure more flexibility in allocating the federal funds to states.

“How do you plan to address severe supply chain issues, chronic workforce shortages, and skyrocketing inflationary costs that will make these funds difficult to invest?” he asked.

The Biden administration is mounting a full-court press to promote the infrastructure plan and providing localized details on what the measure would do to improve rail service, drinking water, broadband internet access and crumbling highways.

Topping the list of infrastructure needs in New Hampshire are its aging roadways and bridges, many of which are in a state of disrepair, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

The Biden administration’s Infrastructure Report Card gave the state a C- grade, saying there are 250 bridges and nearly 700 miles of highway in poor condition.

Biden will visit Michigan on Wednesday, where he is expected to tour a General Motors’ plant that makes electric vehicles. Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Ohio later this week. Biden’s Cabinet secretaries, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and other top administration officials are also peddling the plan.

Biden also hopes to use the infrastructure law to help boost his popularity, which has sagged in recent months amid rising inflation and a prolonged fight against COVID-19.

New Hampshire is also a key state in Democrats’ efforts to hold onto their majority in Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats will be defending a U.S. Senate seat and two congressional districts in New Hampshire next year.

New Hampshire Democrats welcomed Biden’s first visit to the state since the 2020 election, saying it highlights what the infrastructure plan will mean for the state.

“While our federal delegation worked across the aisle to get this bill to President Biden’s desk, New Hampshire Republicans have all criticized or flat out opposed this critical legislation that will bring much-needed investments in New Hampshire’s infrastructure,” Ray Buckley, chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Stephen Stepanek, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said he “welcomed” Biden’s visit but mockingly urged members of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation to get their photographs taken with the president during the trip to the state “to promote his socialist, trillion dollar plans.”

“It will be extremely helpful as we put together our mail and digital ads for next year,” Stepanek said in a statement. “Granite Staters just aren’t impressed with Joe Biden and his definition of leadership.”

4 thoughts on “Biden visits New Hampshire to promote $1 trillion infrastructure law

  1. Everything In The $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill: New Roads, Electric School Buses And More
    Jonathan Ponciano

    President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law one of the largest infrastructure packages in U.S. history after months of bipartisan negotiations and tense political infighting, shoring up $1.2 trillion in funds, including $550 billion in new investments for the nation’s bridges, airports, waterways, public transit and more
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/11/15/everything-in-the-12-trillion-infrastructure-bill-biden-just-signed-new-roads-electric-school-buses-and-more/?sh=367dcfec161f

    KEY FACTS

    Roads and bridges: Headlining the 2,702-page bill’s spending, roughly $110 billion of new funds would go toward improving the nation’s roads and bridges, and investments in other major transportation programs.

    Public transit: The package also includes the largest-ever federal investment in public transit, allotting $39 billion to modernize systems, improve access for the elderly and people with disabilities, and repair more than 24,000 buses, 5,000 railcars and thousands of miles of train tracks.

    Amtrak: The legislation marks the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak 50 years ago, with $66 billion earmarked for high-speed rail, safety improvements, Amtrak grants and modernization of the rail route connecting Washington, D.C., to Boston.

    Broadband internet: Tacking on to billions authorized by last year’s American Rescue Plan, the infrastructure bill includes $65 billion to bolster the country’s broadband infrastructure and help ensure that every American has access to high-speed internet, with one in four households expected to be eligible for a $30-per-month subsidy to pay for internet access.

    Electric grid and energy: Though many clean-energy measures were cut from the bill to satisfy spending-weary lawmakers, a $108 billion investment will help upgrade the nation’s electricity grid, with thousands of miles of new transmission lines and funds for environmentally friendly smart-grid technology.

    Electric cars, buses and ferries: In addition to $7.5 billion for the nation’s first network of electric-vehicle chargers along highway corridors, lawmakers have shored up $5 billion for zero-emission buses (including thousands of electric school buses) and $2.5 billion for ferries.

    Clean drinking water: Following high-profile water-supply crises plaguing cities like Flint, Michigan, the legislation includes a provision for $55 billion to replace all the nation’s lead pipes and service lines, representing the largest investment in clean drinking water ever.

    Great rivers and lakes: Among the bill’s more than $50 billion for water infrastructure improvements, about $1 billion is slated to go toward the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a sweeping clean-up measure targeting toxic hot spots—or areas of heavy industrial pollution—around the Great Lakes region, and $17 billion will be allocated to ports and waterways.

    Airports: More than $25 billion has been allocated to help modernize America’s airports—funds the Airports Council International says will help tackle more than $115 billion worth of project backlogs.

    Road safety: The deal invests $11 billion in transportation safety programs, including a new program to help states and localities reduce crashes and fatalities in their communities, particularly among cyclists and pedestrians.

    Normal funding: In addition to the $550 billion in NEW SPENDING, the package also includes roughly $650 billion in previously authorized funding for roads and other infrastructure, including nearly $300 billion for the Highway Trust Fund and $90 billion for public transit over the next five years.

    BIG NUMBER is $256 billion. That’s how much the Congressional Budget Office estimates the infrastructure bill could add to the nation’s budget deficit over the next 10 years, meaning nearly half of the package’s proposed new spending could end up tacked on to the nation’s $29 trillion debt load.

  2. Bernies $3.5 TRILLION is an initial down payment for many decades of CLIMATE FIGHTING (tilting at wind mills)?
    Oh, no, no, no!

    The real purpose is to increase existing government programs, and to create new government programs to REMAKE the US into a CENTRALLY MANAGED, COMMAND/CONTROL entity, as Bernie has been striving for all his life.

    Dem/Progs will be running these existing and new programs, which will provide career opportunities for many “Dem/Progs-in-Government”.

    Dem/Progs will be spreading themselves throughout all departments of government, federal, state and local, including in the election centers that count the votes to achieve whatever outcome they like.
    The Republican Party will be toast.
    That is the true swamp.
    Dislodging them, en masse, in nearly impossible, because they made laws to prohibit it.

    The government programs will be used to bribe the largely naive inhabitants of Dem/Prog-controlled cities to vote Dem/Prog forever.
    “Global warming fighting” has nothing to do with reducing the world temperature, because mankind’s very puny efforts would completely pale compared to the daily energy input from the sun.

    Vermont, in fact, all of New England, could completely disappear, and it would not make one iota of difference regarding the world climate or climate change.

    This is all about centralized command/control of all phases of our lives, while the “politically unfavored” are mandated to toil to meet the increasingly nutty GWSA-like mandates of Dem/Progs.

    About half the world population is exempt from those world-saving toils, by Paris agreements.
    Totally ineffective John Kerry flies his private jets worldwide, spewing CO2, while playing the role of climate TSAR.
    China folks laugh at him, and ignore him.

    Bernie refuses to fly, except first class, or on borrowed private planes to collect his lucrative speaking fees (aka bribes) to fatten his tax-free “Foundation”, as do the Clintons, who detest other folks, and call them trailer trash and despicables.

    Life is already great for ELITE Dem/Progs (with Obama in a $15 million compound), and is about to get even better

  3. Yup Let’s Go Bradon just traveling all over telling his lies.. Of course, the fake president thinks we Northerners are stupid. If he had a brain he would be even more dangerous… He is destroying our country. this 1.3 trillion $$$ will cost us ZERO he claims.. Man the biden administration is really STUPID, MINDLESS, OUT OF THEIR FRIGGIN MIND.NOTHING is free..
    The democRATS party is using demented biden and so are his wife and son. The man is a pervert. I hope the democrat party kept their children away from the fake president.

    • Unfortunately, there were enough “stupid Northerners” to put the guy in office while the “smart” ones sat back and wondered what happened. But, hey, we don’t have any more “mean tweets” to read on a daily basis, right?

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