# America's Infrastructure Modernization Act

This bill proposes to take unused COVID relief money and redirect it toward fixing and improving roads, bridges, airports, and ports across the country. During the pandemic, Congress approved several relief packages with billions of dollars to help people and businesses. Some of that money was never actually spent or committed to specific projects. This bill would take up to $650 billion of those leftover funds and repurpose them for infrastructure projects instead of letting them sit unused.

The money would be distributed to states based on how federal transportation funding is normally divided up, giving each state a fair share based on population and road networks. States would have flexibility in how they use the funds—they could repair highways, improve bridges, develop ports, upgrade airports, or work on other surface transportation projects. Essentially, it's taking money that was allocated for pandemic relief but never used and channeling it into infrastructure improvements that could create jobs and modernize aging transportation systems.

The bill targets funds from six different COVID relief laws passed between 2020 and 2021, including the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan. For everyday people, this could mean better roads and bridges in their communities, improved airports and ports that support commerce, and potentially construction jobs. However, the bill would need to pass both the House and Senate to become law, and it faced significant political debate about whether repurposing pandemic relief funds for infrastructure was the right approach.

America’s Infrastructure Modernization Act

Boebert, Lauren

America's Infrastructure Modernization Act This bill reallocates a portion of unobligated funds made available under various COVID-19 relief laws to support surface transportation infrastructure, including for ports, highways, or airports. The funds shall be allocated using the same method specified for the Surface Transportation Block Grant program.