"We'll take as much money the federal government can send our way and I would say almost every state is in a similar condition," said Bill Panos, the director of the North Dakota Department of Transportation, who also serves as the president of the Western Association of State Highway Transportation Officials.

Panos has a 10-year plan for North Dakota that is projected to cost $2 billion just to maintain existing infrastructure -- about the amount in federal funding the state expects to receive for road and highway investments if the bill passes.

As currently written, the infrastructure legislation would invest $110 billion in roads and bridges, $39 billion in public transportation, $66 in passenger rail, $17 billion in port infrastructure and $25 billion in airports -- among several other things.

Johnathan Hladik, the policy director at the Center for Rural Affairs, argues that Congress should fix the basic, traditional infrastructure before tackling other issues.

"First things first, let's just fix the basic problems.

"In order to retain population and grow you're going to need infrastructure," said former North Dakota Sen.