(Washington, D.C., 11/16/2021) – The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), on behalf of our member institutions and American Muslims, welcomes President Joseph Biden’s 15 November signing into law of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as a double win for our nation: (1) It finally delivers a federal investment to rebuild America’s failing transportation, utilities, and communication infrastructure after nearly two decades of empty promises; and (2) it puts a crack in the damaging culture block of hostile partisanship between democrats and republicans that have long frozen concerted government action for the good of the struggling American people in the name of rigid feudal loyalties and cult-like devotion to personality.
If properly administered, this law will put $550 billion dollars into retooling the nations crumbling roadways and bridges and upgrading its badly outdated mass transit, railway, airport, waterway, and shipping port systems.
It will invest $65 billion into upgrading a badly needed, nationwide broadband infrastructure, giving virtually every community and location internet and online access.
The legislation targets renovating the country’s failing and dangerously outdated electric grid and water and sewage systems with $108 billion, including $55 billion to replace all the nation’s lead pipes and service lines, the largest improvement for clean drinking water ever.
It looks to the future by investing $7.5 billion to build the country’s first electric-vehicle charger systems along the nation’s highways, while committing another $5 billion to manufacture zero-emission buses for public transport, including school buses, and another $2.5 billion for ferries
USCMO members are particularly pleased with the measure’s major $1 billion superfunds to restore the Great Lakes and clean up industrial pollution and toxic hot spots, a crucial ecological investment.
This represents the law’s new investments, but it wisely includes another $650 billion to deliver sustainable infrastructure funding the federal government has allocated in the past for roads, public transportation, and other infrastructure for five years.
In addition to the massive public, ecological, and safety benefits this law should deliver, it also means a substantial increase in jobs and economic benefits for American workers.
The US Council of Muslim Organizations and our members celebrate the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act law and give due praise to President Biden, his administration, and the Republican and Democratic lawmakers who came together to make this major investment in our nation for the benefit of the American people happen.
We sincerely hope it portends future political cooperation in the interest of the country and its citizenry and an end to damaging factionalism and misplaced personal loyalties.
