October Connector: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

A problem many workforce employees face is not being able to access resources needed within their community. Often, the reason for this problem is because the workforce members live in a rural community where there isn’t many resources available. Due to the higher cost of living in an urban community, many employees can’t afford to live in the areas where there are more resources available. Because of this problem, many workers don’t have access to resources needed for everyday life like internet access, public safety, clean energy, and healthy community environmental services.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (W.E.D.C) works with Wisconsin based businesses and communities to build an economy that works for everyone. As one of their resources to help Wisconsin businesses, the W.E.D.C passed The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (B.I.L.). This law is a $550 billion dollar package with funds available through fiscal year 2024. The B.I.L. also includes special provisions for rural communities, and many programs for grant funding. Making sure rural Wisconsin communities have access to B.I.L. funding is a high priority for the W.E.D.C. and the Office of Rural Prosperity (O.R.P.). The O.R.P created a task force devoted to grant writing and creating initiatives to build more capacity to access the B.I.L. With programs like the B.I.L, rural communities will be able to remain healthy and sustainable for the workforce members living there. If the community doesn’t remain healthy, it will lose more residents and face more economic problems that can cause the community to go bankrupt. Programs like the B.I.L are not hard to access, the only requirement needed to be eligible for the B.I.L is to be a rural community within the State of Wisconsin.

American Physician and author of the book Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet – One Bite at a Time wrote,

“The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.”