President unveils $2 trillion infrastructure plan

President Joe Biden will be speaking in Pittsburgh this afternoon to unveil his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, the first of two packages he’ll be filing to rebuild the economy and create jobs.

The president says the infrastructure package will create millions of good-paying jobs, fix 20,000 miles of roads and 10,000 bridges, and invest in a range of physical infrastructure projects, including transportation, broadband, the electric grid and housing.

In a statement, the White House said, “This is a once-in-a-century capital investment in America to not only meet our current infrastructure needs — like rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges and making sure every American has access to broadband and clean water — but also investing in research and development, so that we can make in the U.S. and sell around the world 21st century products.”

The package will invest in the “care economy,” so more people who need care can access it and to ensure that the government is supporting essential caregiving jobs.

It will also target investments in communities of color and rural communities, and address climate change through an environmental justice and clean energy economic approach.

The spending would take place over eight years, according to Biden administration officials, and will not in every case prioritize so-called shovel ready projects. They said the package would end decades of stagnation in federal investment in research and infrastructure and would return government investment in those areas to its highest levels since the 1960s.

“The American Jobs Plan will invest in America in a way we have not invested since we built the interstate highways and won the Space Race,” the White House wrote in its 25-page fact sheet outlining the proposal.

“Throughout this process, we look forward to working with a broad coalition of members of Congress to gather their input and ideas,” the White House said, “and determine the path forward, create good jobs, and make America more competitive.”

The president said he will announce the second part of his recovery agenda in mid-April, focused on helping families with the challenges like health care costs, child care, paid leave and education.