House passes $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, but Senate Majority Leader McConnell calls it ‘pointless political theater’

The House on Wednesday passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill, the Moving Forward Act, that would sharply increase spending on roads and transit, push for deep reductions in pollution, direct billions to water projects, affordable housing, broadband and schools, and upgrade hospitals and US Postal Service trucks. The bill pours more than $300 billion into repairing bridges and roads, $130 billion into schools that educate low-income children, more than $100 billion into building or preserving affordable housing and $100 billion into expanding broadband internet access. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Democrats were making good on a promise to rebuild America with “green, resilient, modern and job-creating infrastructure,” adding that the Moving Forward Act “shows that everything in our country is connected, from the education of our children to the technologies of the future to the road map to get there.”The bill passed largely along party lines after days of debate and amendments, with three Republicans voting yes and two Democrats casting no votes. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it drew immediate criticism from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)