President Joe Biden ticked off items on the wish list of the United States people during his State of the Union Address.
Biden's State of the Union was Feb. 7 and opened with a remark about the resilience and progress of the nation, according to his remarks.
"Pretty sure every single agenda item President Biden proposed at #SOTU last night has the support of a strong majority of Americans," Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a Feb. 8 Twitter post. "Let's work together to get it done."
Biden lamented the U.S. no longer leads the world in infrastructure, then added that status is about to change, according to his remarks.
"We used to be No. 1 in the world in infrastructure; then we fell to No. 13," Biden said in his remarks. "Now we're coming back because we came together to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest investment in infrastructure since President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System."
In his remarks, he mentioned the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped fund more than 20,000 projects across the country.
"These projects will put hundreds of thousands of people to work rebuilding our highways, bridges, railroads, tunnels, ports and airports, clean water and high-speed internet across America," Biden said in his remarks. "Urban. Suburban. Rural. Tribal."
That is only the beginning, Biden said in his remarks.
"And we're just getting started," he said, according to his remarks. "I sincerely thank my Republican friends who voted for the law. And to my Republican friends who voted against it but still ask to fund projects in their districts, don't worry."
The comprehensive infrastructure law, signed into law in November 2021, governs public works and facilities' development, financing and management. The decree outlines the responsibilities of different levels of government and private sector entities in maintaining and upgrading the country's infrastructure, including transportation systems, water and waste treatment facilities and energy networks. It also creates infrastructure financing mechanisms, such as bonds and public-private partnerships, to support infrastructure projects and ensure their long-term sustainability.
Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law about 65 years after then President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which created the Interstate Highway System, the network of highways spanning across the nation. The system was designed to improve national defense capabilities and facilitate the movement of goods and people.
The era's highway construction to connected cities and states had a major impact on the nation's economic growth and helped spur suburbanization and the growth of the automobile industry, according to the Federal-Aid Highway Act. The Eisenhower-era highway system construction remains one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history and still plays a crucial role in the country's transportation infrastructure.
