IN THE NEWS: Senator Kelly Advances Historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, Brings the News Back Home

In case you missed it, last week, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly voted to pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic investment in our nation’s core infrastructure priorities including roads, bridges, rail, ports of entry, the electric grid, water systems, and high-speed internet. Kelly is one of the 22 members of the Senate bipartisan group that reached a $1.2 trillion infrastructure agreement, and was part of working groups made up of Senators to draft specific portions of the legislation, including those focusing on water and power infrastructure, superfunds and brownfields, permitting, and wildfire mitigation. 

Thursday, just one day after returning from Washington, D.C., Kelly spent the day in Tucson promoting the bill and its positive impact on our roadways, public transportation and water systems. Kelly and Tucson Mayor Regina Romero were joined by South Tucson Mayor Bob Teso and Oro Valley Mayor Joseph Winfield at the Sun Link Maintenance Yard, where the group toured the facility and held a press conference. Tucson’s SunTran is set to receive $118 million from the bill.

Kelly, Romero, Winfield and Teso aboard a Sun Link street car.

Kelly highlighted how he worked with Republicans and Democrats to invest in roads, bridges, public transit systems, drought mitigation measures, PFAS clean-up, and more. The legislation garnered broad bipartisan support from Arizona Mayors, legislators, agriculture organizations and other state leaders. 

See below for news clips:

KVOA News: Infrastructure Funding: Impact on Tucson 

Tucson Sentinel: Sen. Kelly, Mayor Romero tout Tucson impact of $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill

Tucson will see new bridges, roads, buses and trains because of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed by a 69-30 vote in the Senate earlier this week, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said Thursday. […]

Kelly said that $5.3 billion of the $110 billion for roads and bridges nationwide will go to the Arizona Department of Transportation for road and bridge improvements over the next five years, which he said he would love to see go towards Interstate-10 expansion and an improved connection between Phoenix and Tucson.

“I’ve sat on I-10 a number of times, stuck in traffic because there’s an accident, there’s no access roads,” Kelly said. “This is an everyday occurrence. People can’t get to work. Ambulances can’t get to an accident scene then to the hospital. The backup on I-10 is at least an hour. We’ve got to fix that.”

KOLD: Infrastructure bill brings billions to Arizona, Tucson

Just a day after the US Senate passed the $1 Trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, Sen. Mark Kelly was home in Tucson touting its success and the value to the region.

Who hasn’t, he said, sat in traffic on Interstate 10 for up to several hours because of an accident? […]

According to Sen. Kelly, the infrastructure bill will cut a $5.3 billion check to the Arizona Department of Transportation to, in part, fix the problem.

The financial breakdown also shows Tucson transit will get $118 million for SunTran and Sun Link, the modern streetcar.

“Public infrastructure leverages private investment,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero.

KVOA: TIA may receive $31.7 M through Infrastructure Investment, Jobs Act

The Tucson International Airport is selected to receive $31.7 million over the next five years once the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act gets signed into law.

The money is in addition to a previous grant of $18.5 million from Senator Mark Kelly and  Kyrsten Sinema to fund investments at the airport.

Arizona Daily Star: Federal money could boost PFAS groundwater cleanups in Tucson

Arizona could get more than $70 million annually for five years to clean up PFAS-tainted groundwater if a new infrastructure bill that just passed the U.S. Senate becomes law, says U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly’s office.

About $72 million a year would flow into the state under the bill, which could be used to remove PFAS contamination from groundwater supplies in the Tucson and Phoenix areas…

The $72 million a year would represent a major step toward getting cleanups on track in the state’s two big urban areas. […]

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Misael Cabrera called Kelly’s announcement “really good news.”

Arizona Republic: Infrastructure bill could help water cleanup near Luke Air Force Base, residents OK’d to use tap water

A massive, bipartisan infrastructure bill that cleared the U.S. Senate on Tuesday could help pay to remove harmful chemicals from drinking water around Air Force bases in Arizona including Luke, where thousands of residents just got the OK to use tap water after nearly six months relying on bottled water. […]

The cost is estimated in the billions to install and maintain filtering systems across the country…

[…] The $1.2 trillion infrastructure package co-negotiated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema could give state agencies across the country $10 billion in grants to mitigate contamination and filter the PFOS and PFOA from drinking water. Sen. Mark Kelly, who voted for the bill, was part of a bipartisan working group of senators focused on water systems.

KTAR News: Here’s what Arizona would be allocated under infrastructure plan 

In a vital step forward Tuesday, the Senate approved a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan that will allocate plenty of money to Arizona.

The plan will provide funds to rebuild roads and bridges, and also to shore up coastlines against climate change, protect public utility systems from cyberattacks and modernize the electric grid.

Public transit, airports and freight rail will also get boosts under the plan, which now moves to the House. […]

The highest allocation is for major highway projects in conjunction with the Arizona Department of Transportation. U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, in his maiden speech on the Senate floor last week, noted paving roads on Navajo Nation and widening Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson as major projects he’d like to be done with the money.

KYMA News: Sen. Mark Kelly says new infrastructure bill will benefit Yuma County

Sen. Mark Kelly says this bill is something that should have been done decades ago. It includes money for upgrades to the U.S.-Mexico port of entries, along the Arizona border, and funding to enhance water distribution and storage. […]

[S]enator [Kelly] sat down with News 11 to talk about the critical needs addressed in the bill. There are over 150 water projects that have been flagged and need repairs in the state.

“Including in and around Yuma, that’s going to repair water infrastructure including pipes in certain areas right but also repairing dams and canals and pumping plants and all that stuff to make us more resilient to drought,” Sen. Kelly explained.

The town of Tacna’s current system is more than 40 years old and the community has been dealing with high arsenic levels since 2011.

Arizona Capitol Times: Mayor Giles’ Opinion: Infrastructure deal big step in clean-energy future

The bill will invest $550 billion in new money in roads, bridges, ports, passenger rail, waterways and airports. Just as importantly, it will propel Arizona and the rest of the nation toward a cleaner energy future.   

The deal will result in the federal government’s largest-ever investment in clean energy transmission and electric vehicle infrastructure. It would electrify thousands of school and transit buses across the country, in turn, reducing air pollution in our communities. It would create a new Grid Deployment Authority to build a clean, 21st century electric grid.  

The bill will not only make our state healthier and more resilient to climate change, it will also create good-paying jobs and drive economic development. Regionally, we’ve successfully modeled the impact of bipartisan investment in infrastructure, and Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly deserve a great deal of credit for pushing this forward at the federal level. This money is needed more than ever. 

Arizonans like this deal. 

Arizona Republic: Opinion: Sinema and Kelly helped the Senate act before a crisis. Why that matters

I’m encouraged by the bipartisan leadership that Arizona’s U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly are demonstrating in their support and leadership on the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

On Tuesday, they joined with all their fellow Democrats and 19 Republicans in the United States Senate to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. The bill must next get House approval.