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Whoever wins presidential election tasked with implementation of infrastructure law

Whoever wins will oversee what the federal government invests in, from high-speed rail to high-speed internet.
Biden Fuel Economy
Posted at 11:35 AM, Jun 24, 2024

Based on opinion polls, the economy, the border, health care and voting fights are top issues heading into November's presidential election.

One issue that might not be on top of mind for many voters is infrastructure; however, whoever wins the presidency will oversee what the federal government invests in, from high-speed rail to high-speed internet.

And both candidates are making infrastructure a top issue.

"We are going to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure," former President Donald Trump said.

"Somewhere along the way we stopped investing in ourselves," President Joe Biden said.

Both President Biden and Trump spent a great deal of their presidencies talking about infrastructure.

Trump had several "infrastructure weeks" while in office, but only President Biden can claim major legislative success.

In November 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which funds over $1 trillion in projects and addresses everything from high-speed internet to high-speed trains.

Trump said at the time that the "infrastructure bill is a disgrace."

But that was the past and the question is what would President Biden and Trump do for the future? A big part of whoever wins will be overseeing the implementation of that legislation.

The Biden administration has taken criticism recently by members of Congress, specifically over how only a handful of electric charging stations have been built, even though it has been three years since the infrastructure law was approved.

Democratic senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon recently called it a "vast administrative failure."

If Trump returns to the White House, the impact on the electric vehicle charging network would likely be even more profound. Trump has criticized electric vehicles on the campaign trail and has vowed to roll back Biden administration policies to speed up the transition to EVs.

Other challenges to implementing the infrastructure law exist too.

Commissioner Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, recently posted on social media, "In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds."

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