Senator wants $1 trillion infrastructure bill

Vermont’s Bernie Sanders will soon introduce legislation to fix crumbling roads and bridges.    Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont plans to unveil a $1 trillion infrastructure modernization bill when the new Congress convenes this week.
   The bill, Sanders said in a press release, would rebuild bridges and roads, add funding to current infrastructure projects, and create 13 million jobs.
   To justify the funding, Sanders pointed to current estimates by the American Society of Civil Engineers that put investment needs at $3.6 trillion across the next five years to keep the nation’s infrastructure in working order; $1.7 trillion of that total is needed for bridges and roads.
   Sanders — an independent who is the new ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee — sees this as an issue that bridges party lines.  
   “There are a number of Republicans who understand that it is vitally important that we rebuild our crumbling infrastructure,” he said.
   “America once led the world in building and maintaining a nationwide network of safe and reliable bridges and roads,” he continued. “Today, nearly a quarter of the nation’s 600,000 bridges have been designated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.”