U.S. Sen. Bob Casey pitches infrastructure, services for the elderly and children

The bipartisan infrastructure bill pending in the U.S. House likely will become law by mid-October, predicts U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

The Scranton Democrat, on the road in Pennsylvania during the August congressional break, on Thursday told Tribune-Review editors and reporters the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate includes a big boost for highways and bridges as well as transit and broadband.

“That was a good bipartisan win,” he said.

Casey said Pennsylvania likely will receive about $11.3 billion for highways and bridges and about $174 million in funds for infrastructure related to electric vehicles along with additional transit monies.

He is promoting the infrastructure bill as well as additional services to children and the elderly through the proposed $3.5 trillion reconciliation package Democrats want to pass with the bill.

On Friday, he will be in Pittsburgh at the United Steelworkers International headquarters. He will join Congressman Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, and representatives of Elliott Turbomachinery, the Alex E. Paris Contracting Co. and USW members from across the region to pitch the impact of the infrastructure bill.

Casey said he’s confident the bill both labor and industry supported will become law as written.

As for the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package — which includes many of the human service initiatives in the Five Freedoms for Children package Casey first proposed in early 2020 — he conceded much work remains to reach agreement on the bill and determine how to pay for it.

“The Republicans didn’t do a very good job in 2017 to pay for their tax bill. We’re trying to do what they didn’t,” Casey said.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, who flatly declared the infrastructure bill too expensive, has labeled the reconciliation package a monstrosity.

But Casey argues the $400 million in the reconciliation bill would underwrite an expansion of home and community care for the elderly and disabled. That alone would be a boost for Pennsylvania, he said. A Senate report estimated it would create 19,000 new home care jobs in the state, boost wages for those workers and provide services for more than 16,000 seniors and disabled citizens on a waiting list to receive such care.

Casey said the popular homecare program, which costs $26,000 a year, is a savings over nursing home care at $90,000 a year.

He also has long been a proponent of expanding the safety net for children.

He’s encouraged that several of the planks in his Five Freedoms for Children— ensuring safety, freedom from want and hunger and access to quality child care and education — were addressed in the reconciliation proposal.

“It’s going to be critical if we’re going to have the kind of country we say we want to have, if we’re going to be able to out compete China,” he said. “I believe it all starts with these investments in kids.“