Biden team readies wider economic package after virus relief

WASHINGTON DC: Looking beyond the USD 1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, President Joe Biden and lawmakers are laying the groundwork for another top legislative priority a longsought boost to the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure that could run into Republican resistance to a hefty price tag.

Biden and his team have begun discussions on the possible outlines of an infrastructure package with members of

Congress, particularly mindful that Texas' recent struggles with power outages and water shortages after a brutal winter storm present an opportunity for agreement on sustained spending on infrastructure.

Gina McCarthy, Biden's national climate adviser, told The Associated Press that the deadly winter storm in Texas should be a wake-up call for the need for energy systems and other infrastructure that are more reliable and resilient.

The infrastructure is not built to withstand these extreme weather conditions, said Liz Sherwood-Randall, a homeland security aide to the president. We know that we can't just react to extreme weather events. We need to plan for them and prepare for them.

A White House proposal could come out in March.

Now is the time to be aggressive, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor who knows potholes.

At a conference with state and local highway officials Thursday, he referred to the often-promised, neverachieved mega-initiative on roads, bridges and the like from the Trump administration.

I know you are among those who are working and waiting most patiently, or maybe impatiently, for the moment when Infrastructure Week will no longer be a kind of Groundhog's Day promise but actually be something that delivers generational investments, he said.

Much of America's infrastructure roads, bridges, public drinking and water systems, dams, airports, mass transit systems and more is in need of major restoration after years of underfunding, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. In its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, it gave the national infrastructure an overall grade of D+.