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Colorado to see billions from federal infrastructure bill

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Robert Davis | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Colorado stands to see billions in federal funding from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives over the weekend.

The funding is meant for infrastructure improvements on roads and bridges, public transit and airports, as well as the expansion of electric vehicle charging stations and wildfire mitigation efforts.

Colorado’s congressional delegation voted 6-3 along party lines to pass the bill, with Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck, and Doug Lamborn voting against the bill.

“This is American democracy at its best,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said in a statement. “We’ve just passed the biggest climate bill in U.S. history and the biggest infrastructure investment since the New Deal. While there’s more to come, today America showed we can work together.”

Colorado is expected to get $3.7 billion for road improvements and $225 million for bridge improvements, as well as more than $110 million to expand the state’s broadband infrastructure, and $57 million for electric vehicle charging stations.

Other investments Colorado is set to receive under the bill include $432 million for airport projects over five years, $688 million for clean water projects, and $35 million for wildfire protection.

Rep. Lamborn criticized the bill for failing to modernize the National Environmental Policy Act process, which he argues makes infrastructure projects unnecessarily “lengthy and costly.”

Lamborn also said that the bill fails to invest in “traditional” infrastructure, and instead favors investments in Green New Deal initiatives.

“While it is true that we to need to address many forms of infrastructure, such as replacing aging roads and bridges, strengthening our electrical grid, and expanding access to broadband, I could not support legislation that spends so little on traditional infrastructure,” Lamborn said in a statement.