March 08, 2022

Duckworth Hosts Champaign County Leadership for Virtual Fly-in and Highlights Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Benefits to the Region

 

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today met with several members of the Champaign County First Coalition, a group of elected officials and stakeholders who advocate for the region, to discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can support Illinoisans in Champaign County by helping improve water infrastructure, fix local roads and bridges and bring good-paying jobs to the region. During the video call, Duckworth and the group also discussed several planned initiatives that would help improve quality of life for residents, including highway and rail infrastructure projects.

“Day after day, we’re seeing the ways the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is already at work benefitting Illinoisans, fixing roads and bridges across the state, increasing electric vehicle charging networks and improving our state’s locks and dams,” Duckworth said. “Over the coming months and years Illinois will feel the impacts of this legislation through cleaner drinking water, safer wastewater systems, shortened commute times and more good-paying jobs. It was great to discuss these benefits with Champaign County leaders today, and I look forward to continuing to support Central Illinois so our local economies can recover and thrive.”

This past November, President Biden signed the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal into law that included several provisions led by Duckworth to help improve the lives of working Americans by making drinking water safer, reducing traffic congestion, allowing infrastructure projects to implement local hiring initiatives, protecting roadside responders and improving transit accessibility, among many other benefits for workers. The law will help Illinois and Illinois communities improve roads, bridges, highways, public transit, airports and more throughout the state to allow for more good-paying jobs, better accessibility and needed investments.

Duckworth’s bipartisan Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA) was signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and it will put Americans back to work fixing and upgrading our nation’s crumbling and dangerous water infrastructure. Duckworth’s DWWIA will also enable communities to repair and modernize failing wastewater systems, better protect families from forever chemicals like PFAS and deliver environmental justice to communities in every corner of the state that have been ignored for too long—all while creating good-paying, local jobs.

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