Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) today voted to approve a nearly $1 trillion investment in upgrading the nation’s roads, bridges, transit systems, and water infrastructure. The infrastructure bill passed the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 69-30.
The legislation will send more than $1.5 billion to Rhode Island for highway and bridge repairs over five years. Whitehouse helped secure the highway and bridge funding as a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Whitehouse issued the following statement about the legislation:
“There is a whole lot for Rhode Islanders to like in this very significant infrastructure bill. Working across the aisle, I helped deliver $1.5 billion in funding to improve highways and bridges in Rhode Island and to create good jobs and grow our economy. Our legislation includes much-needed investments in electric vehicles and charging stations, clean mass transit, and coastal resilience – a down payment on the larger climate change provisions I expect in the Democratic reconciliation bill.”
“I am working hard to ensure that the other piece of the infrastructure package moving on the reconciliation track will do the heavy lifting on climate. Together, the two pieces of legislation must meet nature’s test of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, beyond which point science tells us the effects of climate change become catastrophic. I have always considered these two pieces of legislation as a package deal, and would not support one without the other. For that reason, and to ensure that the package meets nature’s test, I wholeheartedly support Speaker Pelosi’s decision to delay voting on the bipartisan legislation until both elements of the package have passed the Senate.”
A summary of some of the legislation’s benefits for Rhode Island is available here.
