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The Empire State is set to reap upwards of $170 billion after the House of Representatives passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill late Friday night.
The Senate passed the bipartisan bill back in August, but the legislation had been stalled for months in the lower chamber as progressive and moderate Democrats haggled over the details.
Some of the top-line items for the state include:
Highways: $12.5 billion
- $11.5 billion for roads, highways.
- $1.9 billion for bridge repairs.
- $142 million for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure
Airports: nearly $1 billion
- JFK — $294,682,575.
- LGA — $ 150,008,970.
- Long Island MacArthur — $21,595,630.
Rail: $58 billion
- $22 billion for Amtrak improvements, including the Gateway tunnel project under Hudson River.
- $24 billion for Northeast Corridor modernization.
- $12 billion for Intercity passenger rail, including high-speed rail.
Water: $90 billion
- $14.7 billion for the EPA’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which provides grants and loans for infrastructure projects.
- $14.7 billion for the EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Funds, which provides loans to states for water-quality improvement.
- $55.4 billion in supplemental emergency appropriations.
Mass Transit: $9.8 billion
- $9.8 billion for Clean Buses and Mass Transit
The cash will also mean faster ferries, completing a high-occupancy vehicles (HOV) lane on the Staten Island Expressway, and upgrading the city sewer system to better handle flooding and more.
Like its Senate counterpart, the bill was bipartisan, with 13 Republicans — including New York Reps. John Katko, Tom Reed, Nicole Malliotakis and Andrew Garbarino — signing on to the legislation.
Six Democrats bucked the party and voted against the bill, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman from New York. The move puts them on the same side with state GOP fire-breathers who also voted no, like Reps. Elise Stefanik and Claudia Tenney — who warned the bill would be a “trojan horse” for the Democrats larger social-spending agenda.
The rest of AOC’s progressive “Squad” cronies — Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Cori Bush of Missouri also voted against the bill.
“I proudly voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package that will improve the safety and prosperity of communities across America and make the necessary improvements to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island) said after her yes vote.
“I was proud to help negotiate and help pass a once in a generation bipartisan infrastructure bill that will be delivered to President Biden’s desk,” added Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island).
“This bold legislation will actually help real people address some of the real problems that they face. A major infrastructure bill has eluded the past four presidents, and we finally got it done,” he added.
The funding bonanza had been mired for months in fraught negotiations in the House with progressives insisting that the infrastructure bill only be allowed to pass if a deal for an even larger $1.75 trillion social spending bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, could be reached.
Moderate House Democrats have long balked at the potential price tag, however, and Friday’s deal came only after a pledge from them that they would take up the larger bill if the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determines it does not increase the federal budget deficit. Negotiations for the pending BBB bill should come to a head by mid-November.
“The bill was mostly clean, we went through it,” said one New York House GOP staffer brushing off the criticism. But now it’s up to the city and state to allocate the money appropriately.”
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