The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA) announced its support for the long-awaited and historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Tuesday. The $1.2 trillion deal cleared the U.S. Senate in August and the House of Representatives in November.

Vince Sandusky, SMACNA’s Chief Executive Officer, provided the below statement in response to President Biden signing the bipartisan bill today.

“America’s leading construction contractors and their skilled workforce know infrastructure is a vitally important investment that should be built to last. We are elated that a bipartisan vote in Congress passed, and the President signed a top priority of the skilled construction industry firms and the voters nationwide. Everywhere one looks, our communities face growing lists of urgently overdue infrastructure projects – including retrofitting existing public buildings, constructing needed new facilities, upgrading transportation networks, water systems, and broadband capabilities – and our contractors and highly skilled and trained workforces stand ready to the challenge. We have long awaited both the renewed federal policy commitment and the financial support advanced in this bipartisan legislation.

We greatly appreciate that Congress and President Biden worked many months together to answer the call of the vast majority of the nation’s citizens and businesses to make historic investments to strengthen, build, protect, and maintain the infrastructure that keeps Americans moving. Local governments and highly talented contractors employing skilled apprentices and craftspeople are waiting and ready to get to work. For more than two decades, SMACNA and its contractor allies have called on Congress to invest in our nation’s infrastructure. With this new law, federal leadership has delivered for our contractors, our workforce, and the communities where they work and live. We applaud President Biden’s signing this bill into law.”

Of the legislation’s $1.2 trillion total, $550 billion represents new federal investments in America’s infrastructure and will add an estimated two million jobs per year to the national economy as well as vastly improve the energy efficiency of our nation’s building, energy and transportation systems.