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Senator Chuck Grassley shared his thoughts on the Biden Infrastructure bill that passed Congress recently. Grassley was one of 19 Republicans in the United States Senate to support the measure.

He downplayed the estimated price tag of the bill, which is over $1 trillion.

“Remember, about $550 billion of it was going to be spent by the gas tax money coming in over the next 10 years anyway,” he said. “So we’re talking about only a half a trillion dollars more than what otherwise would be spent.”

Of that $500 billion, Grassley said there is $300-some million to fix bridges in Iowa.

“We got safe bridges that we’re gonna get benefit from by a few hundred million dollars,” Grassley said. “And then a few billion dollars, but I don’t have the exact figure, will be additional spending on our highways. And then I don’t have any figure for broadband in Iowa, but in this whole bill there’s $65 billion for broadband and Iowa has a lot of rural areas that do not have the infrastructure to serve the people the way that people in cities can be served. So we’ll fill in that void. And then there’s a few billion to fix locks and dams on the Mississippi River benefitting farmers. And then there’s money for our bus systems in Iowa — things of that nature.”

Grassley said the House bill is exactly the same as the one that passed the Senate.

“And remember that Iowa Chambers of Commerce, the Iowa Farm Bureau, the Commodity Groups of Agriculture, the Restaraunt Association, the Retail Federation, the Banker’s Association, the Chambers of Commerce of the 15 largest cities all asked for this bill to pass,” Grassley said. “And now it’s through both houses so Iowa will benefit to the degree and more that I’ve already said.”

Author: Jacob Hall

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