Infrastructure Bill Passes Senate: Cross-Structure Development Synergy

Blow the dust off the U.S. economic machine and flip the power switch! Years of American manufacturing "know how" is going to be pulled out of the library archives and applied to maximize advantages from national infrastructure investments. Aging rail lines, sinking ports and a spaghetti electric grid are getting an overhaul beyond just a few more sand bags. Senate passes HR3684 the INVEST in America Act designed to improve the core infrastructure that helps to maintain its economic positioning in the emerging Digital Era (Information Age).

After years of penny pinching neglect our manufacturing infrastructure might help update the U.S. economic platform in a way that creates cross pollination and integration of multiple core structures (i.e. logistics such as product delivery, manufacturing such as advanced products, and virtual marketspaces, etc. See Rethink Service, Supply Chain Integration, Internet & Supply Chain, International Sales & Knowledge, and Delta County Shipping). It is the process of co development with hungry investors, entrepreneurs, and labor that matches American grit to the tools it needs to start rebuilding its future (I guess instead of giving it away. 🙅).

What is new is that we are not dealing only with hard infrastructures like we did during The New Deal, but instead dealing with the integration of virtual technologies with hard infrastructure as co-grid components. As each of these systems begins to interact on a macro scale we may see a significant boost in cross structure functionality through the integration and pairing of different pieces of a new economic platform (i.e. physical/virtual networks, crypto currency, advanced manufacturing, etc... that signals a higher state of functioning.). That may also mean the U.S. becoming one of the first advanced digital age platforms for international business growth and investment (or not! 🤷 Just playing around with the idea in my Transactional Cluster Research. See Next Economic Platform and See Digital GDP Govt. Mind and See Economic Cluster Research).

COVID pushed US companies (and other international companies) to adapt from a globally challenging pandemic into the virtual world based on the foundations of digital era technology (i.e. Internet, Satellites, robotics, AI, etc...) that was in its infancy a few decades ago but is now advanced enough to be functionally practical. We adapted these tools quickly to overcome a challenge but its advantages will want to keep (commuting and work from home arrangements, virtual meetings, higher forms of communication, etc...).

New business strategies that worked well during COVID will likely continue to be implemented through more formal ventures; the infrastructure bill being an example of change (...and network development). Wide scale adaptations of companies, government, and infrastructure boosts to virtual-physical networks might mean another economic boon in the future (1-3 years). Now that infrastructure is changing we will have more and more of our economy go online leading to a possible boost era for companies when their first-in efforts meet with the post-COVID U.S. economic system  (See Economic Projected Adaptation and Needs Fulfill Economic System)

Kelsey Snell from NPR did well breaking down some of the complex information so its easy to understand in her article, 'The Senate Approves The $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill In A Historic Vote'

$73 billion for electric grid and power infrastructure
$66 billion for passenger and freight rail
$65 billion for broadband investments
$55 billion for water systems and infrastructure
$50 billion for Western water storage
$39 billion for public transit
$25 billion for airports
$21 billion for environmental remediation projects
$17 billion for ports and waterways
$15 billion for electric vehicles
$11 billion for road safety

(There could be changes still.)

You can also read another description: The Washington Post has a fairly solid article entitled 'Senate approves bipartisan, $1 trillion infrastructure bill, bringing major Biden goal one step closer' written by Tony Romm that covers the main ideas. 

Looking at the Bill

This bill addresses general provisions related to federal-aid highway, transit, highway safety, motor carrier, research, hazardous materials, and rail programs of the Department of Transportation (DOT). It is focused on the core infrastructure needed within the country. While it may not state this specifically it is part of a larger strategy to return manufacturing back to the U.S. The bill is long and complex but fairly straight forward. This will have an impact on most things going on in our economy because it focuses on the fundamentals of information and resource exchange (See Data Triangulation). 

In the HR3684 INVEST in America Act you will find lots of details and budgeting information. What we do find is that much of the effort is on basic infrastructure. Basic infrastructure often creates net positives because they impact very basic costs such as shipping or Internet. As investments move into these areas (assuming the money is well spent) they will improve upon the larger infrastructure processes. If done well and in coordination they may be able to improve multiple basic infrastructure aspects that create further changes (i.e. online market spaces and the cost to deliver products. There are lots of co-development examples.)

Among other provisions, the bill

• extends FY2021 enacted levels through FY2022 for federal-aid highway, transit, and safety programs;
• reauthorizes for FY2023-FY2026 several surface transportation programs, including the federal-aid highway program, transit programs, highway safety, motor carrier safety, and rail programs;
• addresses climate change, including strategies to reduce the climate change impacts of the surface transportation system and a vulnerability assessment to identify opportunities to enhance the resilience of the surface transportation system and ensure the efficient use of federal resources;
• revises Buy America procurement requirements for highways, mass transit, and rail;
• establishes a rebuild rural bridges program to improve the safety and state of good repair of bridges in rural communities;
• implements new safety requirements across all transportation modes; and
• directs DOT to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee to restore and maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund and achieve and maintain a state of good repair in the surface transportation system.