Sen. Kaine gives insight into infrastructure bill’s impact on Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - President Joe Biden signed a historic $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law this week that will support improving roads, bridges, broadband access, and much more.

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine addressed media Wednesday, November 17, on ways this bill will benefit the commonwealth.

“We have this once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity, the infrastructure bill, to truly bring high quality and affordable broadband to everyone in Virginia,” Kaine said.

The infrastructure bill will bring at least $100 million into Virginia to support broadband access. While it has already invested in broadband expansion, the Democratic senator says local governments need to speak up for the funding they still need.

“I think the way to access those dollars is to make the case to the incoming administration about where there are gaps and then work with the administration to utilize the dollars to help make sure everybody’s got coverage,” Kaine said.

The senator also says improvements on roads, bridges, and waterways will also lead to more jobs.

“I think this will create hundreds and thousands of jobs nationally, and tens of thousands of jobs in Virginia just to do the build out of roads and bridges, to do the port work, to do airport expansions, rail expansions,” he said.

Kaine says that’s not all the improvements will bring: “You not only hire the people to do the build out, but once you have better roads and bridges and you have better rail access and your ports are bigger and your airports are better then your platform for economic success goes up and more businesses will want to come and locate around the port of Virginia.”

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