My spouse and I recently completed a road trip from Colorado to Oregon. As we dodged countless semis it was impossible not to marvel at our interstate freeways. Begun in 1956 and officially completed in 1992, the US Interstate highway system stretches over 48,000 miles, built for a cost of $530 billion in 2019 dollars, adjusted for inflation.

For much of the journey our path was also shadowed by freight trains hauling the raw materials of our economy – commodities consumers don’t think about. Most rail construction took place in the 19th century and was privately financed. Today the rail system includes over 160,000 miles of track.

Battered by the Great Depression and steadily losing traffic and riders to auto and airplane travel after WWII, railroads were revived by deregulation in the 1980s and the concurrent rise of the now ubiquitous intermodal-shipping container.

When our journey took us through the Columbia River Gorge the essential role of industrial infrastructure was on full display. The Columbia is a major aorta in America’s economic blood stream. Highways and train lines hug both sides of the river. Tugboats push enormous barges downriver filled with grain from farms all across the West.

The Columbia also hosts multiple hydroelectric dams, including the massive Bonneville Lock and Dam complex. Constructed in the 1930s by the Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville at that time was the largest water impoundment project in the nation. The inexpensive power generated by Bonneville and other dams have reliably delivered emission-free energy for generations.

One thought plagued me as we rolled past these massive public works: are we even capable of building like this anymore?

Supply chain snarls have loomed large in the public imagination of late. These logistic spasms are responsible for growing wait-lists for appliances and furniture, shortages of new cars, and store shelves empty of various items.

Shipping ports have been clogged since the onslaught of Covid with container ships waiting to unload. Trucking companies are also facing a massive, post-Covid driver shortage.

These disruptions expose the fragility of “next day shipping” and “just in time” inventory management. Suddenly we can’t get anything we want, when we want it, with just a few clicks and a credit card.

Analysts predict supply chain convulsions will persist into 2022. Faced with an intractable yet intangible problem, there is a tendency to demand that politicians “just fix it.”

Enter the Biden Administration’s signature legislative victory to date: the “INVEST in America Act.” The Act authorizes new federal spending of $550 billion – the net amount of increased spending authorized. The Act is also described as $1.2 trillion dollar package, which includes the gross amount of authorized spending from all funding sources.

Confusion about the price tag stems chiefly from competing portrayals of the “pay for” provisions in the Act. It renews several previously approved transportation programs and repurposes unused funds from several Covid relief programs. The CBO found the repurposing measures save $22 billion, rather than the roughly $263 billion claimed by the Bill’s sponsors. The CBO also concluded that new FCC spectrum auctions would raise far less than the $87 billion originally claimed.

One of the sneakier pay for provisions is a clause that mandates a three-year delay in the implementation of Trump administration rules that change the way Medicare and Medicaid pay for prescription drugs. The new rules ban drug makers from giving rebates to insurers, anticipating that those rebates will be passed on to consumers. The CBO says delaying those changes until 2026 will save the government $51 billion – presumably at the expense of consumers.

The approved Act is much smaller than the $2.6 trillion plan Biden proposed in March. Gone are $566 billion of tax credits targeted for R&D and manufacturing and $400 billion in subsidies for home- or community-based healthcare. Also absent are $387 billion for affordable housing, schools, and other buildings and $363 billion in clean energy tax credits.

What’s left? Roughly $110 billion for roads and bridges, $66 billion for railway upgrades, $65 billion for electric grid expansion, $65 billion in broadband subsidies for remote communities, $55 billion for water and sewer infrastructure, $47 billion for climate related resiliency projects, and $39 billion for public transit. Funds for ports and airports and $15 billion for EV subsidies also made the cut.

CBO scoring shows the Act increasing federal borrowing by $256 billion over 10 years. It will take at least 10 years for most of the spending to translate into tangible results. However, once completed those projects create tangible productivity benefits. For example, Moodys forecasts that the Act will increase GDP in 2031 by $39 billion.

The INVEST Act is certainly more than an infrastructure bill in the classic sense, but it legitimately represents a transformational effort to repair and modernize the public works that are crucial to the operation of our economy. Hats off to the 13 House Republicans who voted for it, and shame on the six House Progressives who voted against.