Rep. Colin Allred discusses how infrastructure bill will impact North Texas
DALLAS - There is $35 billion coming to Texas with the new infrastructure bill, but it might be years before Texans feel a positive impact.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law Monday. Still, there are many unanswered questions.
"I don’t yet think we have a really clear idea on exactly which projects are going to be funded and when they’re going to be funded," SMU economist Mike Davis said.
Davis said Texans shouldn’t expect to see immediate changes.
"These kinds of projects take years and years and years to unfold," he added.
Saturday, Congressman Colin Allred discussed how the bill will affect Texans, with the $35 billion coming to the Lone Star State.
Most of it will build or repair highways and roads.
"In Texas, there are 818 bridges and almost 20,000 miles of highway in poor condition," Allred said.
$3.3 billion will go to public transit.
"This is a historic level of investment for transit in the country, the state of Texas, and of course for DART," Dallas Area Rapid Transit CEO Nadine Lee said.
$1.2 billion will go to airports.
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"There is no such thing as a free lunch," Davis warned.
There’s concern, after the U.S. recently spent trillions of dollars for COVID-19 relief bills, that more spending will further worsen the economy.
"We’re seeing the supply chain issues. We’re seeing what’s the worst inflation in 30 years," Davis said. "Wages are up, but, you know, what’s up more is prices. Everything we want to buy is more expensive and some of the things we want to buy we can’t even get."
President Biden called the bill a monumental step that’ll create jobs. The bill easily passed the Senate, but had a more narrow victory in the House.
"Whatever problems we have now are certainly going to be with us through the end of the year, and almost certainly through the first half of 2022," Davis said.