Congressional Leaders to Prioritize Energy, Manufacturing, Infrastructure Package

Incoming House and Senate leaders to work in parallel to set legislative priorities for the year ahead, with infrastructure once again near the top of the agenda. Last July, House Democrats passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package, H.R. 2, which included funding for a broad array of transportation, communication, energy and water, and other infrastructure priorities, but the legislation never received any consideration in the Senate and a bipartisan approach to infrastructure failed to materialize.

The Senate’s transportation package from the last Congress, S. 2302, which included $286.7 billion for transportation programs, never made it to the Senate floor. Most of the nation’s surface transportation funding and programs, last reauthorized under President Obama as the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015, expired on September 31, 2020, making reauthorization of transportation programs a necessary priority for House and Senate authorization committees for transportation issues this year. 

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) wrote to colleagues recently that, “We will consider bold legislation to defeat the climate crisis by investing in clean energy infrastructure and manufacturing, which will create millions of good jobs for Americans, regardless of zip code.”

Other key proposals from the 116^th Congress that will factor into a broad infrastructure package include the House Democrats work to address climate change. The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis last year released a detailed report on a variety of climate change proposals that included recommendations for new tax incentives, regulatory mandates, infrastructure investments, and other approaches to greening the economy to tackle climate change. House Energy & Commerce Committee leaders also released draft text for the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act, a climate plan designed to ensure the United States achieves net-zero greenhouse gas pollution no later than 2050. 

To read the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis report and recommendations, visit: https://climatecrisis.house.gov/report

For more on the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act, visit: https://energycommerce.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/ec-leaders-release-draft-clean-future-act-legislative-text-to-achieve-a-100

To review a fact sheet on H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act from the 116^th Congress, visit: https://transportation.house.gov/download/moving-forward-act-fact-sheet