A group of key U.S. House Democrats were to introduce legislation on Friday to authorize $547 billion in additional spending over five years on surface transport, a plan that would mostly go to fixing existing U.S. roads and bridges and increase funding for passenger rail and transit.
House Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Peter DeFazio said in a statement the proposal seizes on a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to move our transportation planning out of the 1950s and toward our clean energy future."
The roughly 1,000-page proposal comes as President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans are in talks over a massive jump in U.S. infrastructure spending. Biden wants $1 trillion in new spending over eight years over "baseline" spending on highways, bridges and transit, while Republicans have called for about $250 billion in new spending.
DeFazio's plan also calls for $109 billion for transit and $95 billion for rail, including tripling funding for U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak to $32 billion. It would require Amtrak to set aside at least 2.5% of all annual government funding "to enhance the passenger experience on long-distance routes."
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