Collection: Infrastructure Investments
Analysis of the Build Back Better Agenda
President Biden campaigned on the notion that, as we recover from this pandemic, we must emerge greater than when the pandemic began. He continues to advocate for building back better, focusing on the root causes of systemic deficiencies that the pandemic exacerbated. The Build Back Better Agenda is a roadmap for doing so.
This Collection of articles discusses the infrastructure investments that would be made if the Build Back Better Agenda were enacted. Given a prefix like “infra” essentially means “below”, these infrastructure investments would improve many of the structures underlying our society. Just as roads and bridges help people and resources reach their destinations, so too do our social policies empower people to accomplish their goals and care for their families.
Congressional negotiations are increasingly tense yet confusing for most voters to follow, so I wrote this series with the hopes of clarifying what is at stake and what these infrastructure bills include. If you want articles like these sent to your inbox as soon as they are published, sign up for free by clicking the Subscribe button.
A Divided Agenda: One Bill Passed, the Other’s Future Remains Uncertain
I recently wrote an article outlining updates on several topics, one of which is the Build Back Better Agenda.
The House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on November 6, 2021, and President Biden signed the bipartisan bill into law shortly thereafter.
The House also passed the Build Back Better Act in November, but as of early December, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate. If the bill even passes, we might be lucky to get half of the $3.5 trillion in total funding initially sought, and several crucial provisions will be diminished or cut entirely from the final draft.
Recall when I said: united we bargain; divided we beg? Progressives appear to be in the begging phase of negotiations now, and Biden seems to have entered the “nothing would fundamentally change” phase of his presidency. Corporate Democrats have apparently won a significant victory for their corporate donors. Read more details in the update article below.
I plan to monitor the Build Back Better Act’s negotiations and write a sort of post-mortem article reviewing the successes and setbacks throughout this ordeal.
The Two (Original) Infrastructure Bills
Infrastructure Investments and a Call for Solidarity
The Build Back Better Agenda is making its way through Congress in the form of two infrastructure bills:
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—the ~$500 billion “bipartisan” bill
The Build Back Better Act—the (formerly) $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill
The bipartisan bill would focus on a narrower set of projects, such as constructing and repairing roads and bridges, while the budget reconciliation bill would invest in a broad range of priorities. Together, these investments would create 20 million jobs over the next decade.
Corporate Democrats are predictably obstructing the budget reconciliation bill at the behest of their wealthy financiers—which is yet another reason why we need the campaign finance reforms from the For the People Act enacted—but progressive Democrats once held an important negotiating chip.
Progressives were, for some months, insisting that both bills pass together, rather than allowing one to pass and losing all negotiating leverage on the other bill. They since caved and are allowing the Build Back Better Act to be gutted, and it currently faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
I agreed with this strategy: no reconciliation bill, no deal. I therefore called for solidarity in passing the full Build Back Better Agenda, reminding readers of an old union adage—united we bargain, divided we beg. The overall spending in the Build Back Better Act has since been cut roughly in half and still has no guaranteed chance of passing. I suppose progressives are once again in the begging phase of legislation.
Read more about what was originally drafted in the bills, how they could have progressed President Biden’s agenda, why arguments against the reconciliation bill made and continue to make no sense, and the obstructive efforts against such investments in the article below.
Updates Throughout the Negotiations
Infrastructure Update and Discussion
In this update, I notified readers of the change from a September 27 vote to one on the 30th. This was the day we knew whether the budget reconciliation bill had a chance of passing or if corporate Democrats would succeed in obstructing their president’s agenda once again.
I remind readers at virtually every opportunity that this is essentially what led to the 2010 midterm election defeat, and that we must deliver meaningful results for the voters who mobilized to secure the White House and both houses of Congress. We must give Democrats in swing districts the ability to campaign on immediate results for their constituents, lest we lose the ability to pass any meaningful legislation for the rest of the Biden presidency.
Read more about this update and upcoming discussion threads in the article below.
Celebrating Progressive Solidarity (For a brief but important moment)
Since the September 30th vote went as expected—and the bipartisan bill did not pass, due to the budget reconciliation bill not being up for a vote simultaneously—we remained in roughly the same position as the day before. Congress was still negotiating the two infrastructure bills with the hope of ultimately passing both.
Update 10/4/2021
This was indeed the case, although a formal vote on the bipartisan bill did not even occur at that time. I briefly discussed the events in the article below.
The latest update on the bifurcated strategy is described above, but here is another link to the article discussing how the two bills were ultimately decoupled and the Build Back Better Agenda was gutted.
Origins of the Build Back Better Agenda
Biden’s Plans for Unions and Working Families
After Congress passed the American Rescue Plan and solidified our economic recovery in the short term, President Biden sought to advocate for the next logical step by addressing systemic deficiencies inhibiting long-term growth and prosperity. Central in this plan was rebuilding the middle class.
Setting the agenda on how to do so, Biden proposed three legislative priorities:
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act
The American Jobs Plan
The American Families Plan
Based on the principles that President Biden campaigned on, with his rhetorical calls to “build back better” than before the pandemic, these plans eventually took the form of the two infrastructure bills discussed above. Whether the PRO Act will make it into the final version of the budget reconciliation bill is uncertain, but the Jobs and Families Plans are prevalent throughout the Build Back Better Act.
To learn more about how these infrastructure packages are President Biden’s agenda—and represent the entire Democratic party’s platform—read the article below to see how these bills progressed over time.
Future Articles
With the passage of the bipartisan deal and the Build Back Better Act facing an uncertain future in the Senate, I may provide updates as negotiations progress, but likely won’t write an article until Biden signs something into law.
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Infrastructure Investments and Economic Justice
We have the opportunity to invest in long-neglected systems, structures, and people across the country. We can create millions of good, middle-class jobs in the process. We can address the climate crisis, which every day seems to show signs that we must act with urgency, and in doing so, we can protect not only the planet, but also the marginalized people most directly impacted by refusing to do so.
We can provide clean drinking water to everyone, putting pipefitters and plumbers to work while saving lives. We can build and repair crumbling roads and bridges while creating millions of jobs throughout the construction industry. We can build houses and make them more energy efficient and sustainable, thereby increasing housing supply and reducing costs. We can create a Civilian Climate Corps so that everyone who wants a job can help save the planet while earning a living wage and learning new skills.
We can prevent people from needing to decide whether they want to put food on their table or if they want to stay home when they are sick, especially when illnesses are infectious. We can reduce childhood poverty while giving parents the childcare support they need to be able to work. We can do all this and more.
We can pass legislation that works for everyone, not just for corporations and the wealthy. By alleviating the unnecessary suffering—which is far too common in the wealthiest nation on the planet—and by paving the way to a brighter future, we can progress towards a more just economy.
Thank you for reading my newsletter and taking the effort to learn about making the world a better place. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can make progress towards a more just economy.
-JJ
Updated 12/2/2021 - Revised certain sections to include more past tense to reflect the passage of time; updated readers on where things currently stand; added link to holiday update article.
Updated 10/4/2021 - Added section on economic justice and linked to an update on the September 30th bipartisan bill vote not occurring.