With support from Democrats and Republicans, President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021 secured the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a historic $1.2 trillion dollar spending package that promised to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. Thus far, the White House says, $480 billion in funding for more than 60,000 projects has been announced. Grants have been allocated to states, tribal governments, territories and local municipalities to undertake needed improvements, from highway expansions to wildfire mitigation. In Montana, the Biden administration says its landmark legislation has delivered $1.7 billion in private sector investment and over 52,000 new jobs.
Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester voted in favor of the bill, and was one of 10 negotiators in the Senate who brokered prolonged discussions between Democrats and Republicans over the scope of the legislation.
“Today a large, bipartisan majority of the Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass my historic legislation that will make critical infrastructure investments in Montana and across the country. I worked with Republicans and Democrats to negotiate this package because Montanans have lived off our grandparents’ infrastructure for decades, hurting our ability to grow our economy,” Tester said in a statement after the bill’s passage…