Skip to Content

NC Chamber Applauds Congress for Passing Landmark, Bipartisan Infrastructure Package

Last Friday, Nov. 5, after months of debate, a bipartisan contingent of U.S. House members showed visionary leadership by passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Earlier this summer, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators – including North Carolina’s senators, Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Thom Tillis – reached across the aisle to advance this long-sought priority out of that chamber.

Throughout these negotiations, the NC Chamber has joined with pro-growth advocates nationwide to urge support for this historic, $1 trillion investment in our nation’s aging infrastructure, which the White House projects will grow two million American jobs each year over the next decade. The NC Chamber commends congressional leaders, and North Carolina’s infrastructure champions in the U.S. Senate in particular, for working hard to ensure this priority made it over the finish line in 2021. President Biden is expected to sign the landmark bill into law next week, after Congress returns from a brief recess this week.

For the nation at large, the infrastructure bill’s passage will inject $110 billion into revamping the national highway system, $40 billion into repairing bridges (45,000 of America’s bridges are rated in poor condition), $65 billion into expanding broadband service for rural areas and underserved communities, $66 billion into railway infrastructure, $65 billion into securing our nation’s electric grid, and roughly $12.5 billion into electric vehicle priorities (including expanding the number of EV charging stations nationwide and accelerating purchases of electric that serve America’s school systems). For North Carolina, the infrastructure bill will mean more than $10.4 billion in additional long-term funding to put toward modernizing our transportation, telecommunications, water, and energy networks.

Other Federal Priorities: Protecting Commonsense Tax Reforms

Supporting world-class infrastructure networks is important at the best of times, but it’s nothing short of critical as America fights to get out from under a global pandemic. So is nurturing a domestic tax climate that empowers job creators to grow and thrive on American soil. But drastic tax hikes attached to another major spending bill Congress is considering – a multi-trillion dollar budget reconciliation plan – threaten to roll back successful tax reforms that are helping America’s businesses drive growth and expand domestic opportunity in today’s intensely competitive global marketplace.

This brief U.S. Chamber update explains how the proposed tax increases attached to the reconciliation bill would harm American manufacturers and job creators in various sectors while damaging America’s overall competitiveness. Suffice it to say that such drastic tax hikes on American competitiveness would put serious dampers on North Carolina’s growth and impede many businesses from operating at full strength to support our economic resurgence.

The NC Chamber recently added our endorsement to a joint letter, organized by the NAM, calling on congressional leaders to safeguard successful tax reforms and oppose burdensome tax hikes on domestic job creation. As we continue to urge North Carolina’s voices on Capitol Hill to stand firm in their support of comprehensive infrastructure investments, we urge them to stand just as firm in supporting fair, competitive tax policies that enable our job creators to continue powering forward progress for our state, its economy, and our citizens.