News
Soybean coalition pleased with infrastructure bill priorities
The leader of the Soy Transportation Coalition says the Senate-approved trillion-dollar infrastructure package puts 110 billion dollars into roads including 40-billion for bridges, plus another 66 billion for railroad improvements.
Mike Steenhoek tells Brownfield, “It really has rallied around what most people regard as core infrastructure, and for us, that certainly includes the transportation infrastructure.”
Steenhoek says getting money to repair and replace old bridges is important to farmers. “We’ve got a bridge problem in this country, and it’s most clearly manifested in rural areas, and that provides some inefficiencies for farmers getting products to market.”
Steenhoek is also pleased to see 17-billion dollars set aside for ports and waterways in the Senate-passed version of the bill. “Some of those locks and dams need to be rehabilitated or even replaced and the inland waterway system is one of the key reasons why U.S. agriculture is competitive, and so making investments in that is important as well.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act now awaits a vote in the U.S. House.
