House Passes $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Package Including the Highway Reauthorization
(July 7, 2020) - On July 1, the "Moving Forward Act," H.R. 2 passed the House on a 233 to 188 mostly partisan vote. After two full days of floor consideration and 162 amendments passing mostly along party lines the massive $1.5 trillion infrastructure package includes the almost $500 billion, 5-year highway reauthorization, the "INVEST in America Act." H.R. 2 is a very broad infrastructure package that goes well beyond the traditional transportation authorization and includes clean drinking water, wastewater, clean energy, healthcare, broadband investment, school investment, and postal service legislation. The legislation now moves to the Senate.
Additionally, the White House is threatening to veto H.R. 2, according to a statement of administration policy released Monday. And the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the House infrastructure package would add $450 billion to the deficit, according to a new preliminary cost estimate released Tuesday.
The Senate is unlikely to advance the "Moving Forward Act," this summer due to the broad scope of the package. In fact, Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) stated that, "a multi-thousand-page cousin of the Green New Deal masquerading as a highway bill" has no chance of passing the Senate. One path forward would be for the Senate to move S. 2302, "America's Transportation Infrastructure Act," which passed the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee last summer with bipartisan support. Senate Commerce, Senate Banking and Senate Finance all need to get their pieces out as soon as they can so S. 2302 can move to the Senate floor.
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