On Monday, November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The bipartisan infrastructure bill will provide more than $1 trillion in federal highway and infrastructure spending over the next five years, representing a generational federal investment in infrastructure.
The IIJA includes both a five-year reauthorization of federal highway programs, as well as a $550 billion additional infrastructure investment. The five-year reauthorization will increase funding to state departments of transportation by more than 30% for each year of the bill, as well as make available competitive grant funds for new programs, including bridges and resiliency.
For Mississippi, this means that based on formula funding alone, Mississippi will expect to receive $3.3 billion for federal-aid highway programs and $225 million for bridge replacement and repairs, in addition to competing for grants for bridges and major projects. Fact sheets detailing the impacts on Mississippi and other states are available here, and an analysis reflecting the economic impact on each state is available here.
In addition, the $550 billion in infrastructure funding includes:
- $110 billion for roads and bridges
- $25 billion for airports
- $55 billion for water infrastructure
- $66 billion for rail
- $39 billion for transit
- $73 billion for power and grid
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association estimates that the $550 billion in infrastructure investment will generate demand for about 180 million yards of concrete over the life of the bill – an estimate that doesn’t factor in the surface reauthorization or the 30% increase in DOT funding.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a huge win for industries involved in infrastructure and transportation construction like the cement and concrete industries as the federal government invests more than $1 trillion in infrastructure over the next five years.
Myths & Facts
Myth: The IIJA is only 10% infrastructure, and the rest is just Green New Deal!
Fact: FALSE. The IIJA represents more than $1 trillion in hard infrastructure. This misconception comes from disingenuous reporting on the $110 billion of additional funding for roads and bridges – over and above the funding included in the surface reauthorization – while leaving out the investment in concrete-intensive infrastructure like transit, water infrastructure and airports.
President Biden’s American Jobs Plan included both traditional and human infrastructure, but the social spending, human infrastructure and tax increases were stripped out during the formulation of the bipartisan infrastructure framework that became the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Myth: The IIJA will drive inflation.
Fact: FALSE. Because infrastructure spending will be spread out over the next five-plus years, it won’t have the same inflationary impact as much of the COVID-19 relief spending. Doug Holtz-Eakin, who served as the Chief Economist for President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors and Congressional Budget Office Director recently wrote about the potential for inflationary pressure from the IIJA. The reality, Holtz-Eakin explained, is that the IIJA “will not create any additional inflation pressure…”.