Senator Kyrsten Sinema

The new bipartisan infrastructure law is a big deal for Arizona.

Many Arizonans have heard about the legislation’s benefits – including repaired roads, cleaner water, expanded high-speed broadband and stronger electric grids.

We achieved these goals without raising the prices of everyday goods or taxes on everyday Americans – and ensured the legislation is paid for through a combination of repurposing unused funds from earlier relief bills, harnessing the financial benefits of public-private partnerships, cracking down on unemployment fraud, reinstating fees on polluters, and other bipartisan pay-fors.

Why are these historic investments important for Arizona?

It comes down to one word: jobs.

When President Biden asked me to lead the effort to rebuild America’s critical infrastructure, along with my friend Republican Sen. Rob Portman, of course I agreed – because as I promised Arizonans, I will work with anyone to get things done.

I also understood that, following the pandemic and resulting economic slowdown, a major jobs plan could fuel our recovery and speed a return to normal – by investing in Arizona communities, creating new economic opportunities, making our state more resilient and helping families get ahead.

Recognizing that potential was easy. Getting it done was tougher.

For decades, American infrastructure has been crumbling – and for decades, progress was blocked by political disagreements.

That history did not deter me, however – because in meetings and calls with Arizonans, I have heard directly from workers, educators, families, employers, seniors, health providers, veterans, tribal leaders and more about the need for stronger infrastructure and new jobs.

Reliable infrastructure is about more than pipes and pavement. Infrastructure represents our literal connections to one another – the opportunities for Americans to visit loved ones, new businesses to open and compete globally, veterans to access high-quality telemedicine, and children to learn in safe ways and access a world of knowledge and innovation.

And serious infrastructure investment represents millions of new American jobs.

So Senator Portman and I pushed ahead, finding areas of common ground, brainstorming ways to bridge disagreements, and expanding our talks to include other results-oriented senators.

Eventually, we led negotiations with 10 senators, five from each party. In a demonstration of how the Senate is supposed to work, our group effectively represented our respective regions – Sens. Bill Cassidy in the south, Mark Warner in the mid-Atlantic, Joe Manchin in Appalachia, and Mitt Romney and Jon Tester in the West.

The Northeast and Alaska, each with unique needs, were ably represented by Sens. Susan Collins, Jeanne Shaheen and Lisa Murkowski – the hardworking, no-drama Wonder Women of our group who always focused on practical outcomes.

We received input and ideas from senators across the country, growing our group to more than 20 senators, including my fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

After more than five months of collaboration – including shared spreadsheets, late-night negotiations, and weekend meetings – we delivered the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a historic jobs plan that earned broad support from labor unions, chambers of commerce, and, ultimately, more than two-thirds of the Senate.

The president has now signed our bill into law, paving the way for thousands of new Arizona jobs and expanded economic opportunities across our state.

Through our law, Arizonans will see new jobs created with upgrades to roads and water systems, deployment of new broadband networks and power grids, and historic investments in airports and Land Ports of Entry that serve as critical national security and commercial junctures.

Our law protects small businesses and expands economic opportunities by better protecting our communities from wildfires and speeding recoveries from such disasters.

Our law strengthens Arizona’s economic security by conserving 100,000 acre-feet of water yearly at Lake Mead, and investing millions of dollars for communities like Tucson to clean up contamination from “forever chemicals.”

Our law generates jobs and business opportunities in tribal communities through investments in roads, broadband, and sanitation – and funding to complete water settlements with the Tohono O’odham Nation, Gila River Indian Community and White Mountain Apache Tribe.

Our plan also includes an overdue update of transportation policy (the kind of policy changes some say are impossible in today’s Senate), strengthening public transit in mid-sized communities, boosting new technologies preventing impaired driving, and raising the voices of tribal communities in policymaking.

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Beyond its investments in jobs, our law provides a roadmap to make Washington work better for everyday Americans.

Our approach in writing this law was grounded in a laser-like focus on the issues that matter most to everyday Americans, and a sincere desire to bridge our differences and forge common ground around our shared values.

Rather than feeding our divisions with extreme rhetoric, all-or-nothing purity tests and personal attacks, the 10 senators who negotiated this jobs bill showed America something different.

We shut out noise from the extremes, refused to demonize each other when we had disagreements, and focused instead on identifying creative solutions and commonsense compromises to “get to yes” and get the job done.

Ask most Americans about our country’s divisions and you will hear a desire for elected leaders to stop the bickering, lower the temperature in Washington and focus our energy on the issues that matter most in Americans’ daily lives.

Imagine what more we could accomplish for Arizona and the country if more leaders used that approach – if, rather than staying in their comfortable partisan corners, more leaders reached out in a genuine desire to find good-faith compromises and craft durable, bipartisan solutions to our country’s most difficult challenges.

I urge all of my colleagues in Washington to embrace that approach. This work is difficult, but Americans did not elect us to play political games.

We were elected to achieve lasting results and solve the problems that matter most to our constituents. That is how we renew Americans’ confidence that our government is worthy of us and working for us.

And on behalf of Arizona, I plan to continue doing exactly that.