North Carolina to Receive Billions of Dollars from Biden’s Infrastructure Bill

Most of the money North Carolina is set to receive from the bill, approximately $7.2 billion, will be allocated toward highway programs. NC Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette says that the influx of funding from the IIJA will offset rising construction costs caused by labor shortages and supply chain issues. Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Over the next five years, North Carolina will receive almost $9 billion from the federal government for infrastructure improvements. On Friday, November 5th, the House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and sent the bill to President Biden’s desk for signing. A landmark piece of legislation and a much-needed victory for the Biden administration, the IIJA is a 1.2 trillion dollar spending package aimed at funding infrastructure projects across the nation. The bill sets aside money for improving existing infrastructure like worn-down roads and bridges, as well as funding for new projects like expanding broadband coverage to rural America.

Most of the money North Carolina is set to receive, approximately $7.2 billion, will be allocated toward highway programs. NC Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette says that the influx of funding from the IIJA will offset rising construction costs caused by labor shortages and supply chain issues. The second-largest allocation of money, $1.1 billion, will go toward clean drinking water improvements, such as replacing old lead pipes. The remaining money will be split between other projects, including bridge replacement and repairs, public transportation creation, and expanding broadband access.

“This bill is a game-changer,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democratic congresswoman from NC-02. “This bill is going to fund the kind of infrastructure that we need to move into the 21st century.” North Carolina’s congressional delegation to the House voted for the bill along party lines, with Ross and her four fellow Democrats voting in favor and eight Republicans voting against. Significantly, NC Republican Sens. Tillis and Burr both voted for the measure. Tillis said that he voted for the bill because the funding could be used towards preparing North Carolina’s coast for the effects of climate change, as well as expanding broadband coverage. “To me, it’s not the perfect bill, but anytime you have a compromise, you’re going to have to accept some provisions you weren’t necessarily in favor of. But on the whole, this is very sound policy,” Tillis said. Burr echoed Tillis, saying that while the bill is not perfect, it provides North Carolina with much-needed funding at little cost to the taxpayer.

Other Republican legislators are not as optimistic. Rep. Ted Budd, a Republican from NC-13 who is running to replace Burr in the Senate in 2022, claimed that the bill is flawed and will serve as a launchpad for Democrats to increase social spending: “The truth is only $110 billion of the new spending in this bill will be spent on roads, bridges, and items generally accepted as infrastructure. Bottom line: We need real, hard infrastructure, not this liberal trojan horse for a socialist agenda.” Budd’s colleagues agreed, arguing that the bill provided too much money to modes of transportation that “most Americans aren’t using.”

With President Biden set to sign the bill in the coming weeks, Democrats are already looking forward to projects that might benefit from the bill’s funding. One potential area of spending could be improving the 1,100 bridges across the state that the North Carolina Department of Transportation deem as being in poor condition; another might be providing broadband access to the over 400,000 North Carolinians that do not have it already. Rep. David Price, a Democrat from NC-04, has said that many of these projects are “shovel ready,” and that they were just waiting for funding to be approved. One of the most significant projects that stands to receive funding from the bill is the proposed Triangle commuter rail line that will connect cities from Durham to Clayton.

As legislators deliberate how to allocate the IIJA’s funding, Republicans worry that the passage of the IIJA will encourage Democrats to attempt to pass President Biden’s Build Back Better Act, a package of social reforms that Republicans have been fighting against. “The only reason why this sham of a bill was rushed to the floor was because Democratic leadership in the House needed it to pave the way for President Biden’s Build Back Bankrupt agenda,” said Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from NC-03.

In the coming months, one can expect a fierce legislative battle over the Build Back Better Act, which will most likely be even more difficult for Democrats to pass than the IIJA. As for the new influx of federal funding coming to the state, North Carolinians are set to benefit from improved infrastructure in the coming years — but it is likely to come slowly as the money moves through red tape.