The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), is a United States federal law passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, 2021. It was first introduced in the House of Representatives as the INVEST in America Act and was sometimes called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The law originally included plans for $547–715 billion to support transportation, highways, transit, safety, and other programs managed by the Department of Transportation. After discussions in Congress, the law was changed and renamed to include funding for broadband internet, clean water, and updates to the electric power system. This updated version included about $1.2 trillion in spending, with $550 billion added to what Congress had already planned to fund regularly.

The updated bill was approved by the Senate on August 10, 2021, with a vote of 69–30. It was then passed by the House of Representatives on November 5, 2021, with a vote of 228–206. Ten days later, President Biden signed the law into effect.

Background

On March 31, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan. This plan, when combined with the American Families Plan, totaled $4 trillion in infrastructure spending. President Biden described the plan as a major effort to make significant changes to the nation's economy. The plan included goals to create millions of jobs, support labor unions, strengthen labor protections, and take action to reduce the effects of climate change.

Legislative history

In mid-April 2021, Republican lawmakers proposed a $568 billion plan to respond to the American Jobs Plan. On May 9, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the plan should cost no more than $800 billion. On May 21, the administration lowered the cost to $1.7 trillion, but Republicans quickly rejected this idea. A day later, a group of bipartisan senators in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced a deal for $304 billion in U.S. highway funding. This plan was approved unanimously by the committee on May 26. On June 4, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio introduced a $547 billion plan called the INVEST in America Act, which would address parts of the American Jobs Plan. On July 1, the House passed an updated $715 billion infrastructure bill focused on land transportation and water.

On May 27, Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito proposed a $928 billion plan, and on June 4, she raised the amount by about $50 billion. This was quickly rejected by the Biden administration. On June 8, the administration focused on a bipartisan group of 20 senators working on a package estimated at around $900 billion. On June 10, a bipartisan group of 10 senators reached a deal costing $974 billion over five years, or about $1.2 trillion if spread over eight years. On June 16, the plan was supported by a bipartisan group of 21 senators. On June 24, the bipartisan group met with the president and agreed to a compromise plan costing $1.2 trillion over eight years. This plan focused on physical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, railways, water, sewage, broadband, and electric vehicles. The funding was to come from improved IRS collection, unspent COVID-19 relief funds, and other sources. By July 2021, the IRS portion of the funding was no longer included. President Biden required a separate "human infrastructure" bill, which included child care, home care, and climate change, to pass before the physical infrastructure bill could be approved. However, he later changed his position. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would not vote on the physical infrastructure bill until the larger bill passed in the Senate, even though reconciliation allows the bill to pass without needing full agreement from all senators.

On July 7, White House officials said the legislative text was nearly complete. On July 14, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced an energy bill expected to be part of the bipartisan package. On July 21, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer introduced a "shell bill" for a vote to begin debate in the Senate, planning to add the bipartisan text through an amendment. On July 25, Republican Senator Rob Portman said an agreement was "about 90%" complete, with mass transit being the last point of disagreement. On July 30, Portman said this had been resolved. On July 28, Senator Kyrsten Sinema said she did not support a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, ending the stalemate and allowing the bipartisan bill to move forward. That day, the Senate voted 67–32 to advance the bill, and on July 30, voted 66–28 to proceed with its consideration. The legislation text was completed and added to the bill on August 1. On August 5, Schumer shortened debate on the legislation, setting up a procedural vote on August 7, which passed 67–27. More than 15 amendments were expected to be debated over the weekend. On August 10, the bill was passed by the Senate 69–30. It included $550 billion in new spending. A procedural vote on a House rule to pass both bills passed along party lines on August 24.

In early August, nine moderate Democrats asked for an immediate House vote on the bill, saying they wanted to keep the momentum from the Senate’s approval. They promised to vote against the reconciliation bill until the bipartisan infrastructure bill was approved. Both Biden and Pelosi changed their earlier positions to support passing the bipartisan bill separately. However, progressive leaders like Pramila Jayapal and Senator Bernie Sanders wanted the bipartisan bill to be used as leverage to pass the larger reconciliation bill. The lack of agreement delayed a late September House vote. On October 2, Pelosi set a new deadline of October 31. By October 28, Jayapal and other progressive leaders said they were willing to vote on the bill separately, but Sanders and others opposed this. On October 31, most progressives said they would support both bills.

Votes on both bills were considered on November 5, but some moderate Democrats hesitated to pass the reconciliation bill before the Congressional Budget Office scored it, making it unlikely the bipartisan bill would pass. After negotiations, centrist Democrats agreed to support the Build Back Better Act. The bill was voted on, as was a rule to vote on the larger bill once it was scored. The vote passed 228–206, with 13 Republicans joining most Democrats in supporting the legislation. Six Democrats voted "No," saying they opposed the bill because it no longer included the social-safety net provisions from the Build Back Better Act. President Biden signed the bill into law on November 15.

Original version of the IIJA

The following is a summary of the INVEST in America Act, as prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), for the version of the bill that passed the House on July 1, 2021:

• Extends funding levels from fiscal year (FY) 2021 through FY2022 for federal programs that support highways, public transportation, and safety.
• Extends funding for FY2023 through FY2026 for several transportation programs, including highways, public transit, highway safety, motor carrier safety, and rail.
• Includes actions to address climate change, such as strategies to reduce the effects of climate change on transportation systems and a study to identify ways to make transportation systems more resilient and use federal resources efficiently.
• Updates rules for purchasing materials used in highways, public transit, and rail projects to ensure they are made in the United States.
• Creates a program to rebuild rural bridges to improve their safety and condition.
• Introduces new safety rules for all types of transportation.
• Requires the Department of Transportation to start a pilot program to test a system that charges drivers based on how many miles they travel, to help keep the Highway Trust Fund financially stable and maintain good conditions for transportation systems.

The bill allocated $343 billion for roads, highways, bridges, and motor safety; $109 billion for public transit; and $95 billion for rail. It encouraged spending on maintaining and repairing existing infrastructure rather than building new projects. It required planning for all types of transportation when connecting job centers to housing, including collecting data on how public transit can reduce vehicle travel. It also required internet service providers and transportation agencies to work together on road maintenance and fiber-optic cable installation, and suggested lowering speed limits to improve road safety and promote the development of streets that support walking, biking, and public transit. The Senate version of the bill and the final version focused less on these specific priorities.

Provisions

According to NPR, the version of the bill that passed the Senate on July 28 included the following funding:

• $110 billion for roads, bridges, and other important projects;
• $11 billion for transportation safety programs;
• $39 billion to modernize public transit and improve accessibility;
• $66 billion for passenger and freight rail;
• $7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers;
• $73 billion to update the nation’s power systems, including designing, building, and modernizing energy transmission systems;
• $65 billion for expanding broadband internet access.

The law makes the Minority Business Development Agency a permanent organization. It allows the Department of Transportation to create an organization called the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Infrastructure (ARPA–I), which will focus on transportation research similar to other research agencies, with $3.22 million in funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. It also gives the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council more authority and makes official the Trump administration’s One Federal Decision executive order to help agencies resolve conflicts and speed up infrastructure approvals.

An October 2021 report by the REPEAT Project, a partnership between Evolved Energy Research and Princeton University’s ZERO Lab, said the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act alone will only slightly reduce emissions. The Georgetown Climate Center estimated how the $599 billion investment for surface transportation in the law might affect emissions. It created two scenarios: one where more money is spent on building new highways and another where more money is spent on repairing existing highways. In the first scenario, emissions would increase by over 200 million tons between 2022 and 2040. In the second, emissions would decrease by about 250 million tons.

In August 2022, the Boston Consulting Group analyzed the Act and found that $41 billion would be spent on energy projects related to climate action, $18 billion on transportation projects related to climate action, $18 billion on "clean tech" to reduce hard-to-reduce emissions, $0 on manufacturing, and $34 billion on other climate-related provisions.

The law includes the largest federal investment in public transit in history, with $105 billion allocated for public transportation. It also spends $110 billion on fixing roads and bridges and includes measures to address climate change and improve access for cyclists and pedestrians. Increasing public transit use and related development can reduce transportation emissions in urban areas by 78% and overall U.S. emissions by 15%.

The law includes spending for:
• $21 billion for environmental projects;
• $50 billion for water storage;
• $15 billion for electric vehicles;
• $73 billion to update the nation’s energy policies;
• $4.7 billion to cap orphan wells abandoned by oil and gas companies;
• $1 billion to connect neighborhoods divided by transportation infrastructure as part of environmental justice efforts. This $1 billion will be used through the Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program, which supports projects like improving community access.

The final version of the IIJA restores a tax on certain chemicals that expired in 1995.

$73 billion will be used to update the nation’s energy infrastructure. The Boston Consulting Group estimated $41 billion of this will be related to climate action in energy. $11 billion of the $73 billion will be used to help the electrical grid adapt to renewable energy, including funding for new power transmission lines and studies for future needs. $6 billion will support domestic nuclear power. Of the $73 billion, the IIJA invests $45 billion in innovation and industrial policies for key energy technologies; $430 million to $21 billion for new demonstration projects at the Department of Energy; and nearly $24 billion to strengthen U.S. energy supply chains, including $8.6 billion for carbon capture, $3 billion for battery material reprocessing, $3 billion for battery recycling, $1 billion for rare-earth mineral stockpiling, and $8 billion for green hydrogen research hubs. The Department of Energy requires grant conditions on $7 billion of the IIJA’s spending on batteries and transportation to promote community benefits, social justice, and union formation. The IIJA overrides a court decision, restoring some authority for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to designate high-demand power corridors. It also creates a $225 million program to help cities, tribes, and counties update building codes for electricity and heating. Finally, the law gives $4.7 billion to cap orphan wells abandoned by oil and gas companies.

The law invests $65 billion in expanding broadband access across the United States. Of this, $42.45 billion will fund a new program called the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), with priority given to areas with slow internet speeds. $2 billion will support tribal broadband connectivity, $1 billion will fund middle-mile infrastructure, $1.44 billion will support state and territorial digital equity plans, $60 million will fund new digital equity plan development, and $1.25 billion will fund discretionary grants for digital equity projects. The law gives the USDA $5.5 billion to provide broadband to rural communities with fewer than 20,000 people, with $5 million specifically for utility cooperatives.

The law invests $14.2 billion in the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps low-income families afford internet and devices. It provides a $30 monthly discount on internet services for qualifying families ($75 on tribal lands) and a $100 discount on devices like tablets and computers. The law also requires the FCC to update its broadband labeling system, improve its public comment process, and create rules to address unfair treatment in internet access. The Government Accountability Office was to report on updating broadband speed standards by November 2022.

To support safe drinking water programs, the law provides:
• $11.7 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF);
• $15 billion to replace lead service lines in local water systems;
• $9 billion to address emerging contaminants like PFAS ($4 billion through the SRF and $5 billion through grants to water utilities);
• $3.5 billion to build water and sewer systems for the Indian Health Service.

For surface water programs, such as watershed management and pollution control, the law provides:
• $12.7 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to support water quality programs;
• $1.7 billion for geographic-based programs, including the National Estuary Program.

Implementation and results

In 2021, President Biden appointed Mitch Landrieu as his infrastructure advisor and the person responsible for carrying out the law. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Advisor, was chosen to ensure the law does not conflict with American foreign policy goals. To help implement the law, Biden issued Executive Order 14052, which created a task force including most members of his Cabinet. Landrieu and Brian Deese, who was then the head of the National Economic Council, were named co-chairs of the task force.

In May 2022, the Biden administration released a guide for local officials to help them use the law. The guide explains over 350 programs included in the law. Each program description includes its purpose, funding, possible recipients, and how long the funding is available. The programs are grouped into four categories: "Transportation," "Climate, Energy and the Environment," "Broadband," and "Other Programs."

By November 2023, the second anniversary of the law, about $400 billion, or one-third of the total funding, had been used for more than 40,000 projects related to infrastructure, transportation, and sustainability. By May 2024, halfway through the law’s timeline, $454 billion (38%) had been used for over 56,000 projects. By November 2024, the third anniversary, $568 billion (47%) had been used for 68,000 projects. This left 53% of the funding unallocated, but the administration was approving funds more quickly. Public interest in the law remained low, partly because project implementation was slow.

The White House created a "Map of Progress" to track spending from the law.

According to the Center for American Progress, a think tank linked to the New Democrats, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act together helped create over 35,000 public and private investments. Economists Noah Smith and Joseph Politano said these acts encouraged growth in factory construction and utility jobs, and helped spread job creation across the country. However, they questioned whether the acts would reduce project delays or significantly increase labor productivity in the long term. The Biden administration reported that by January 10, 2025, the IIJA, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act together had encouraged $1 trillion in private investment, including $449 billion in electronics and semiconductors, $184 billion in electric vehicles and batteries, $215 billion in clean power, $93 billion in clean energy technology manufacturing and infrastructure, and $51 billion in heavy industry. Public infrastructure spending reached over $756.2 billion, including $99 billion in energy projects outside of tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In September 2023, the White House reported that 60% of the law’s energy and transmission funding (about $12.31 billion) had been given to states where most voters supported the Republican party in the 2020 election. Seven of the top ten states receiving funds had voted Republican, with Wyoming ($1.95 billion) and Texas ($1.71 billion) receiving the most. The largest energy project funded by the law was a Generation IV nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, by the company TerraPower.

In November 2022, the Biden administration announced $550 million for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program to help clean energy generators in low-income and minority communities. This was the first such funding since the 2009 Recovery Act. In October 2023, $8.8 million was awarded to 12 communities, with the next applications due in April 2024 (later changed to October). By June 2024, $150 million had been awarded to 175 communities, with $18.5 million given to four states and 20 communities in one instance.

In April 2023, the Biden administration announced $450 million in funding for solar farms built on abandoned coal mines. Additional support for coal communities followed. In November 2023, the IIJA’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains announced $275 million in grants for seven projects in coal communities, creating 1,500 jobs and attracting $600 million in private investment. In October 2023, $428 million in grants were given to 14 projects in coal communities, creating 1,900 jobs and attracting $500 million in private investment.

On July 12, 2023, the Biden administration announced $90 million from the Act’s Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation program to help 27 cities and counties update building energy codes. On March 4, 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced an additional $90 million would be awarded later that October.

On October 24, 2023, the administration announced $3.46 billion in Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) grants from the Act’s $11 billion grid rebuilding plan, funding 58 projects in 44 states. Most projects focused on smart grid improvements, and eight aimed to innovate grid technology. This investment was the largest in the American grid since the 2009 Recovery Act. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the projects could enable 35 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030, attract $8 billion in investments, and build 400 microgrids. On August 6, 2024, the DOE announced $2.2 billion in GRIP grants for eight grid innovation projects across 18 states, adding 13 gigawatts of capacity and attracting $10 billion in investments. On October 18, 2024, the DOE announced nearly $2 billion in GRIP grants for 38 smaller projects in 42 states and the District of Columbia, adding 7.5 gigawatts of capacity and attracting $4.2 billion in investment.

On October 30, 202

Reactions

Republican senators objected to Biden's plan to pass both a bipartisan agreement and a separate bill supported by Democrats. McConnell criticized Biden for giving in to his own party by saying he would not sign the bipartisan bill unless a separate reconciliation package was included. After Biden changed his position, Republican senators again expressed confidence in the bipartisan bill. A Yahoo! News / YouGov poll in late June found that 60 percent of Republican voters supported the plan.

On June 20, 2021, Senator Bernie Sanders said he would not support using a proposed gas tax or a fee on electric vehicles to fund the bill.

On June 28, 2021, the Sunrise Movement and several progressive representatives protested at the White House, criticizing the size and scope of Biden's Civilian Climate Corps. Some protesters were arrested for blocking White House entrances.

On July 6, the 58-member bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus supported the bipartisan bill and called for a quick and independent House vote. On July 21, a group of 65 former governors and mayors endorsed the plan.

Before a procedural vote on August 7, former president Donald Trump criticized the bill and said he would support Republican candidates who opposed it. He repeated his criticism after the bill passed Congress.

After Congress passed the bill in November, Trump called it "only 11% for real Infrastructure" and said it was "the Elect Democrats in 2022/24 Act." He also criticized Republicans who supported it, accusing McConnell of helping "those who are destroying" the country. Some House Republicans criticized 13 Republican representatives who voted for the bill, calling them "RINOS" (Republican in Name Only), "spineless," or "traitors." Others criticized specific lawmakers for actions that conflicted with their votes. Several Republican governors who opposed the bill accepted its funding for state programs.

On June 22, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and No Labels urged the president to consider a bipartisan bill. These groups asked for no increase in corporate taxes, instead suggesting user fees and borrowing from other federal funds.

An early August Harvard CAPS – Harris Poll survey found that about 72 percent of voters supported the bill.

On September 24, leaders from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Urban League, and other Black American advocacy groups supported the bill.

On September 25, Peter J. Wallison wrote an opinion piece for The Hill, saying Republicans should support the bipartisan bill to prevent it from being used to push the reconciliation bill. After this, Republican House leaders officially opposed the bipartisan bill.

Historians, economists, and engineers told The Associated Press that Biden's efforts were welcomed, but they said $1 trillion was not enough to fix years of poor infrastructure maintenance.

Transportation for America praised the House version of the bill but criticized the Senate version for not addressing safety, climate resilience, long-term transit funding, and maintenance. It later noted that the final version made small improvements.

The nuclear industry supported the bill because it showed continued government support for the industry.

A July 2022 poll by Third Way and Impact Research found that only 24 percent of voters knew the bill was signed into law, despite House Democrats holding over 1,000 events to promote it.

Reactions to the drunk driver detection and distraction detection requirements were mixed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving praised the rule as a step toward ending drunk driving. However, the American Civil Liberties Union warned that the technology might risk driver privacy if it collects unnecessary data. A writer for Vice argued the technology might have a high rate of false positives, as existing devices used after drunk driving convictions sometimes fail.

In October 2023, the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the IIJA's hydrogen hubs program for not being transparent. It called for more detailed reports, public hearings to address local concerns, and inclusion of environmental justice advocates in leadership roles.