Federal Relations Update

With the recent passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), President Biden and Congressional Democrats have turned their attention to the next phase of COVID recovery; an infrastructure package that will be split into two separate phases.

Last week, President Biden released more specific details on phase one, which is expected to be a $2.25 trillion dollar package. Chief among the components included in the outline was money for projects relating to water, transportation, broadband, power, manufacturing/supply chain, public schools, community and four year colleges. Further, the plan does call for increased funding for research and development including enhanced funding for the National Science Foundation, investments for regional innovation hubs, and funding for innovation and job creation in rural areas.

As with ARPA, this will move quickly through the halls of Congress, with Speaker Pelosi indicating she’d like to have this completed in the House by July 4. As mentioned above, the second phase of the bill, which will be released at a later date is expected to focus on human infrastructure. As details emerge from that plan, and as phase one move forward, we will continued to keep you up to date.