House Democrats release $85B infrastructure plan

House Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill to spend at least $85 billion on infrastructure upgrades, staking out their position ahead of a congressional debate over infrastructure spending later this session. 

The bill from Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee includes funding for five years of infrastructure projects in the energy, environment, technology and healthcare spheres. 

It would spend: 

• $40 billion to deploy broadband internet around the United States; 
• $22.5 billion on drinking water infrastructure improvements;
• $17 billion on the electric grid, renewable energy and energy efficiency programs;
• $3 billion to improve hospitals and infectious disease research facilities; and
• $2.7 on the Brownfields industrial waste site cleanup program. 

The bill, called the Leading Infrastructure For Tomorrow’s America, or LIFT, Act, “is a blueprint for critical investments in our nation’s infrastructure that will also create jobs, promote economic growth and protect public health and the environment,” Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said in a statement. 

{mosads}The bill comes as lawmakers in both parties aim to write an infrastructure investment bill sometime this session. 

President Trump has said he’s aiming to craft a $1 trillion bill. But beyond floating potential funding mechanisms like an increase in the gas tax, he hasn’t released details on that plan.

Senate Democrats unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure plan of their own in January, though Republicans rejected it almost immediately, saying any infrastructure package will require bipartisan buy-in.

—Updated at 4:11 p.m.