The Biden administration is preparing to oversee billions of dollars in infrastructure projects around the country, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at the White House on Monday, three days after the bipartisan infrastructure passed the U.S. House of Representatives, sending it to the president’s desk.

What You Need To Know

  • The House passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill late Friday night, sending the measure to President Joe Biden's desk

  • Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the White House is preparing to oversee billions of dollars in infrastructure projects around the country

  • The bill includes money for railways, roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, increasing access to broadband, combatting the impact of climate change on communities, electric vehicles and more

  • The White House has not identified a specific project to kick off the implementation of the bill, though Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the president would be touring the country to highlight its “transformational” impact

The infrastructure deal includes money for grant programs through which states and local governments can apply to fund different projects, and the Department of Transportation will review those applications.

“We’re going to have to grow,” Buttigieg said Monday when asked about staffing capability. “It’ll be $660 billion over that stretch of years, that we need to manage responsibly.”

Buttigieg said his department was “excited — with an exclamation point” about the historic investment in infrastructure the bill will make, a word he says he uses sparingly.

“Our department has been gearing up hoping that this bill would pass, and now that it has, we've taken it to the next level,” the secretary said, promising an “emphasis on projects that, taken together, give us extra value in the priorities of this administration: economic strength, safety, climate, equity, preparing for the future.”

"We know that we're going to be held to a very high standard by the President as well as the public," he said.

President Biden has not signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law since it passed Friday night, partly because he wants lawmakers and key stakeholders in the bill to be present for the signing ceremony, but he will do it “very soon,” a White House spokeswoman said Monday.

When the president does sign it, Secretary Buttigieg said he would “be there with bells on.”

“We’re looking more forward to having shovels in the ground to begin rebuilding America,” said President Biden in remarks on Saturday to celebrate the bill’s passage in the House. “And for all of you at home who feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that’s changing so rapidly, this bill is for you.”

The infrastructure bill — which Biden and bipartisan senators hashed out back in June — includes money for railways, roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, increasing access to broadband, combatting the impact of climate change on communities, electric vehicles and more.

While Biden said the impacts could be felt as soon as “two to three months,” it was unclear how soon the funding would be felt throughout the country. Some spending would flow right away, Sec. Buttigieg said, since half of the money in the bill goes to boost programs that are already funded. 

The White House has not identified a specific project to kick off the implementation of the bill, though Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the president would be touring the country to highlight its “transformational” impact, starting with a visit to Baltimore on Wednesday. 

Cabinet secretaries will also travel around the U.S. to tout the impacts of the infrastructure bill, Jean-Pierre said.