White House Releases Infrastructure Plan

The White House unveiled a $2 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday and the proposal is broken up into two parts. The American Jobs Plan aims to invest $621 billion in transportation infrastructure to update highways, bridges, airports, and other transit systems. This plan would also invest $100 billion in building high-speed broadband infrastructure and an additional $100 billion to improve the nation’s electric grid.

The second part of the plan would serve as the funding mechanism. Called the Made in America Tax Plan, it would raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, which is a 7% increase from the current rate. This plan also increases the global minimum tax for U.S. multinational corporations to 21% and would calculate the tax payments on a country-by-country basis.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement saying it applauds the Biden administration for making infrastructure a top priority, but strongly opposes the general tax increases that are proposed. The U.S. Chamber called the plan to pay for the infrastructure “dangerously misguided.”

“Properly done, a major investment in infrastructure today is an investment in the future, and like a new home, should be paid for over time - say 30 years - by the users who benefit from the investment,” the U.S. Chamber said. 

The U.S. Chamber also opposes the administration’s support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act in the plan.

However, the administration’s plan does incorporate some U.S. Chamber priorities, such as workforce training and energy and climate research and development.