LINCOLN- Thanks to a large grant from President Biden's administration, Nebraska has received around $1.2 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, allowing York Public Schools to replace their again buses, levees to be repaired in Western Nebraska, and bridges to be replaced.

Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, was excited to see Nebraska be rewarded so much from the $1 trillion program. "Trump and the Republicans talked about infrastructure but never did anything," said Kleeb, "President Biden and Democrats delivered."

In Congress, support for the bill from Nebraska lawmakers was split. U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, whose father acted as Director of the Nebraska Department of Roads, voted in favor of the bill. U.S. Rep. Don Bacon did the same.

"I voted for the infrastructure bill because it's an investment in the future of our state," said Fischer. Fischer pointed out that Nebraska saw a 21% increase in funding for roads and bridges over the past year than it had the year before that.

U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse and U.S. Reps. Adrian Smith and Jeff Fortenberry voted against the aid package, with Smith stating that the bill didn't focus on traditional infrastructure needs and was "more about electric vehicles and charging stations."

"These bills spend too much, tax too much and put an extreme left-wing agenda over getting Americans back to work and solving our supply chain crisis," said Smith.

The Brookings Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, stated that Biden's new infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills allowed for the largest building spree in our country since the New Deal.

Six rural Nebraskan schools were picked to receive electric buses to replace their aging ones. These districts include McCool, Hay Springs, Hershey, Raymond Central, Southern, and Summerland. However, McCool superintendent Dade McDonald said the school board is still deciding whether or not they want to accept the new buses. "There's some things we're obviously curious about," he said, "We're still getting some questions answered."

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