What the Infrastructure Bill Shows Us about Today's Policymaking Environment

Now that President Joe Biden has signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, it’s worth pausing to consider the lessons civil society learned from the debates, negotiations, and compromises that got the bill over the finish line.

First, for those of us in the nonpartisan public policy space, we should be pleased to see that the pulse of bipartisanship still beats, even if weakly. Thirteen Republican representatives joined 215 Democrats to vote for the bill, ensuring its passage. This followed a bipartisan vote in the Senate, where 19 Republicans joined 50 Democrats in voting for the bill. And although some may argue that the process weakened the bill (or didn’t weaken it enough), the fact remains that Americans throughout the country will benefit from the investments being made in critical areas, such as broadband, flood-ready infrastructure, and our nation’s parks, among other elements.

Read more at the Stanford Social Innovation Review.