I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3473 
To establish an expansive infrastructure program to create local jobs and 
raise the quality of life in every community, to launch middle class 
career pathways in infrastructure, and to invest in high-quality American 
jobs, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 25, 2021 
Ms. BASS (for herself, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. 
MENG, Mr. JONES, Mr. SIRES, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. SAN NICO-
LAS, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Ms. JAYAPAL, Ms. BARRAGA´N, 
Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. KHANNA, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. POCAN, 
Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. GOMEZ, Ms. LEE of 
California, Ms. PRESSLEY, and Mr. BOWMAN) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infra-
structure, and in addition to the Committees on Education and Labor, 
Agriculture, Financial Services, Energy and Commerce, Natural Re-
sources, Homeland Security, and Small Business, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of 
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish an expansive infrastructure program to create 
local jobs and raise the quality of life in every commu-
nity, to launch middle class career pathways in infra-
structure, and to invest in high-quality American jobs, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Build Local, Hire Local Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Definitions. 
TITLE I—CREATING JOBS AND RAISING THE QUALITY OF LIFE 
IN EVERY COMMUNITY 
Subtitle A—Creating Local Jobs Across the Country 
Sec. 111. Targeted hiring requirements for construction jobs created by covered 
infrastructure programs. 
Sec. 112. Compliance with court orders. 
Subtitle B—Rebuilding Our Infrastructure With American Business 
Sec. 121. Definitions. 
Sec. 122. Increasing meaningful small business participation. 
Sec. 123. Requiring meaningful participation from targeted businesses. 
Sec. 124. Compliance with court orders. 
Sec. 125. Expansion of Small Business Administration Surety Bond Program. 
Subtitle C—Encouraging the Use of U.S. Employment Plans and Best-Value 
Contracting Analysis 
Sec. 131. Creating a best-value analysis for Federal expenditures on infrastruc-
ture, use of U.S. Employment Plans, and preferences for reg-
istered apprenticeship programs and neutrality in union orga-
nizing. 
Subtitle D—Improving Safety, Connectivity, and Access to Better 
Opportunities 
Sec. 141. Accessibility data program. 
Sec. 142. Establishment of performance measures for transportation accessi-
bility. 
Sec. 143. Technical assistance program. 
Sec. 144. Connect Communities Program. 
TITLE II—LAUNCHING MIDDLE CLASS CAREER PATHWAYS IN 
INFRASTRUCTURE 
Sec. 201. Building American Infrastructure and Careers Program. 
Sec. 202. Infrastructure workforce equity capacity building program. 
Sec. 203. Authorization of appropriations. 
TITLE III—INVESTING IN HIGH-QUALITY AMERICAN JOBS 
Sec. 301. Wage rate. 
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Sec. 302. Raise labor standards, improve working conditions, and strengthen 
workers’ bargaining power. 
Sec. 303. Buy America Bureau. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) infrastructure plays a vital role in the lives 
of all people in the United States; 
(2) the aging infrastructure of the United 
States is in need of a significant investment to re-
pair, rebuild, and modernize, and in the process, the 
Federal Government can take necessary steps to ad-
dress economic and racial injustices that have lim-
ited opportunities for far too many people of the 
United States; 
(3) decades of disinvestment and exclusionary 
policies have isolated many people of color, low-in-
come people, and disabled individuals in the United 
States from opportunity across the urban centers, 
deindustrialized cities, rural regions, and Tribal 
areas of the United States, including horribly inad-
equate investment to ensure universal access to 
clean air and water, safe and reliable transportation, 
affordable housing, quality living wage jobs, high- 
speed internet, modernized schools, and parks and 
community facilities; 
(4) while the construction of the National High-
way System remains one of the most transformative 
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achievements in the history of the United States, it 
came at the expense of many low-income commu-
nities as well as minority neighborhoods of all in-
come levels that were destroyed by the construction 
and isolated from the broader community and from 
economic opportunity; 
(5) investing in repairing, rebuilding, and mod-
ernizing the infrastructure of the United States pre-
sents an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of 
the past and reimagine how communities can design 
and build infrastructure to be more equitable, help-
ing to address structural inequities faced by 
marginalized communities nationwide, including a 
lack of good paying jobs, affordable, accessible, and 
inclusive housing, decaying roads, bridges, and 
schools, inadequate access to technology, and expo-
sure to toxic emissions and poisoned water; 
(6) accessibility to quality infrastructure, train-
ing, and jobs is an issue across the United States, 
spanning from rural and Tribal areas to urban and 
suburban areas; 
(7) transportation infrastructure has a signifi-
cant impact on access to jobs, education, healthcare, 
healthy foods, and other essential services; 
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(8) accessibility to essential services is defined 
not only by speed, but also by ease of access, which 
includes the ability to safely and conveniently access 
services by all modes of travel; 
(9) with a shortage of construction firms that 
are ready and able to take on the large-scale infra-
structure projects the United States demands, the 
close to 478,000 specialty trade contractors in small-
er minority, women, and disadvantaged businesses 
could be supported to meet this demand; 
(10) small businesses and under-represented 
contractors, including minority-, women-, veteran- 
owned businesses, and businesses owned by disabled 
individuals should have the opportunity to rebuild 
their communities and employ hardworking people of 
the United States along the way; 
(11) as of 2018, about 1⁄4 of the infrastructure 
workforce is projected to retire or permanently leave 
their jobs over the next decade, compounding the in-
frastructure crisis in the United States; 
(12) as of 2019, the Board of Governors of the 
Federal Reserve System finds that skilled trades and 
many occupations that do not require a 4-year de-
gree are not considered to be at significant risk of 
automation; 
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(13) infrastructure jobs include a wide range of 
employment opportunities in both the public and pri-
vate sectors, including design, manufacturing, con-
struction, operation, governance, and maintenance of 
infrastructure assets in the United States; 
(14) more than 1 in 10 jobs in the United 
States is a transportation- or infrastructure-related 
job; 
(15) many infrastructure jobs provide competi-
tive wages with low barriers to entry, many of which 
require on-the-job training in lieu of formal 4-year 
degree higher education programs; 
(16) in spite of rising income inequality, infra-
structure jobs paid approximately 30 percent more 
to low income individuals than other occupations in 
2018; 
(17) women, people of color, and particularly 
women of color are underrepresented in construction 
jobs; 
(18) while women across all occupations cur-
rently make up about 50 percent of the workforce, 
women in construction and extraction occupations 
has hovered around 3 percent for the last 3 decades; 
(19) while Black Americans make up about 12 
percent of the overall workforce, Black Americans 
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only represent 7 percent of construction and extrac-
tion occupations; 
(20) by focusing on improving workforce devel-
opment systems through targeted employment strat-
egies, the Federal Government can improve the qual-
ity of future projects and better ensure that all com-
munities benefit from investments that— 
(A) protect workers; 
(B) expand opportunities for advancement; 
(C) establish strong labor standards; and 
(D) redress discriminatory policies that 
have unfairly burdened low-income communities 
and communities of color with pollution and ge-
ographic isolation; and 
(21) the Federal Government should make con-
certed efforts to close the workforce gap, through co-
ordination with States and units of local govern-
ment, workforce development agencies, national and 
regional nonprofit intermediaries, labor organiza-
tions, and institutions of higher education and other 
educational institutions, including historically Black 
colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving insti-
tutions, to recruit, train, and retain the next genera-
tion of infrastructure workers in the United States, 
with a focus on— 
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(A) achieving gender, ethnic, racial, and 
ability diversity; and 
(B) recruiting and training individuals 
from communities with high unemployment 
rates, including African-American communities, 
Hispanic communities, Indian Tribes, the dis-
abled community, and the LGBTQ community. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) COVERED
INFRASTRUCTURE
PROGRAM.— 
The term ‘‘covered infrastructure program’’ means 
any of the following: 
(A) Direct and guaranteed loans and 
grants under section 306(a) of the Consolidated 
Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 
1926(a)). 
(B) Distance learning and telemedicine 
grants under section 2333 of the Food, Agri-
culture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 
(7 U.S.C. 950aaa–2). 
(C) Broadband loans and loan guarantees 
under title IV of the Rural Electrification Act 
of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 950bb et seq.). 
(D) The community connect grant pro-
gram established under title III of the Agri-
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