Sokaogon Chippewa Community News
White House Details Tribal Components of Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal
By Rob Capriccioso, Tribal Business News
The White House on the evening of June 29 released a list of Tribal and Native American-specific components of the bipartisan infrastructure deal agreed to last week by President Joe Biden and moderate Democratic and Republican senators.
The White House calculates that the overall deal, if it passes both chambers of Congress, will inject $1.2 trillion in total infrastructure spending over eight years, $579 billion of which is new spending. A substantial portion would go to Tribes, but a breakdown was not yet available.
The Indigenous components are part of what the White House is promoting as a “Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework: Advancing Economic and Public Health Opportunities for Communities of Color,” which includes a wide variety of infrastructure improvement projects aimed at Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics.
“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework addresses economic disparities in our economy and the consequences of decades of disinvestment in America’s infrastructure that have fallen most heavily on communities of color,” according to the framework’s fact sheet released by the White House.
“Through critical investments, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework increases access to good-paying jobs, affordable high-speed internet, reliable public transit, clean drinking water and other resources to ensure communities of color get a fair shot at the American dream.”
White House officials said in the fact sheet that these “critical investments are first steps in advancing equity and racial justice throughout our economy.”