After President Joe Biden proposed a series of promises to minority communities and the Democrats of America during his inaugural address in January 2021, he is now on a time crunch to pass his bipartisan infrastructure bill that was proposed in June 2021. This bill is a $1.2 trillion dollar investment plan that gives funding to problems within the United States. It will include clean transportation, clean water, clean power, decrease in pollution, and decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, while also investing in plans like the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan. Along with the bipartisan bill, Biden is also looking to pass the social infrastructure bill ($3.5 trillion) that includes funding towards the attempt to reverse climate change. Many of these subjects that Biden wants to invest in are Democratic, but Biden believes that “these bills are not about left versus right or moderate versus progressive… We’re at risk of losing our edge as a nation… To oppose these investments is to be complicit in America’s decline” to which he expressed in a press conference in Michigan on October 5.
Biden’s main idea when passing these bills is the “build back better” ideology, however, the President cannot move forward with his plan until both conservative Democrats and a few Republicans decide to vote in favor of the plan. Biden has been traveling around the country taking note of natural disasters such as Hurricane Ida and the flooding in New Jersey and New York, while also advocating for the infrastructures to politicians to gain the states’ vote. The rush portion of the bill comes from the fact that there is a climate summit coming up during the first two weeks of November. Given that the social infrastructure bill is based on climate change, Biden wishes to pass it through Congress to give valuable information and a place in the summit. Having a say in the upcoming summit is important to the climate issue in the United States because of the lack of climate change awareness that Trump brought to the table from 2016 to 2020. Trump even backed out of the annual climate summits due to his belief that they were not the United States’ priority. The issue that Congress has against this bill is how much of an investment that it would require coming from government expenses. Given that it is a 3.5 trillion dollar investment, Congress has to be sure that the plan will work in the United States’ favor. Biden has the democratic vote already, but it's the conservative Democrats and the entirety of Republicans who do not believe that this much money is necessary or worth it to give away.
When it comes to the bipartisan infrastructure bill that is mainly investing in subjects that are for the better of the people (jobs act, families act, more college aid, etc.), it was passed in the Senate in August 2021, with a 69 to 30 vote. Biden’s promises to the democratic people of America are being fulfilled, but the promises for environmental and sustainable investments were one of Biden’s main ideas, so without the passing of the social infrastructure bill before the climate summit, many individuals will be disappointed and Biden will face repercussions from his supporters.
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