When the Greater Reading Chamber Alliance held its annual Congressional Conversation event a year ago, the focus was understandably on the way the federal government was responding to the growing coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic was still fresh at that point. Discussions focused on providing relief for households and businesses reeling from the sudden economic shutdown, securing funds to purchase personal protective equipment and establishing testing programs.

But now, with the end of the pandemic hopefully not too far over the horizon, the conversation has shifted from responding to the global health crisis to finding the best road to recovery.

Two of them, Democrats Chrissy Houlahan and Madeleine Dean, think the right path runs through the American Jobs Plan.

They both touted the $2 trillion proposal being pushed by President Joe Biden that would overhaul and upgrade the nation's infrastructure, saying it will help the country rebound from the economic devastation caused by the pandemic.

"As we work to get our economy back on track and on a path to greater opportunity, I want to echo Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who said that the price of doing too little is much higher than the price of doing something big," Dean told the virtual audience.

Dean, a Montgomery County Democrat who represents a small portion of Berks, said the proposal is a once-in-a-generation investment that will have a lasting impact on her community. She said she is confident the benefits will far outweigh the costs in the decades to come.

Pennsylvania is long overdue for an infrastructure upgrade, she said, pointing to a report released by the White House earlier this month that gave the state a grade of C minus for its existing supports.

The report says there are 3,353 bridges and more than 7,540 miles of highway in poor condition. It says 22% of trains and other transit vehicles in the state are past useful life. It also says extreme weather events have cost the state up to $10 billion in damages over the last decade.

Houlahan agreed that Pennsylvania's infrastructure is in poor shape, saying that it has suffered from a systemic lack of investment.

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan gets a guided tour of the Berks Community Health Center in Reading from the facility's CEO Mary Kargbo on April 6.

"If we're really only talking about getting people back to work we're missing most of the point because, as you all know in this room, we need to be talking about creating new businesses and new jobs as well," the Chester County Democrat said.

Houlahan, who represents Reading and many southwestern communities in Berks and sits on the House Small Business Committee, said because of that she intends to work hard to get the proposal through Congress.

"I believe we have a profound opportunity to have an enormous impact on our community here in Pennsylvania — particularly when it comes to how this bill impacts the small business community" she said.

She said some of the things the plan will do include increasing federal contracting opportunities for small businesses, empowering small businesses to reach underserved communities, encouraging small businesses to engage in the innovation economy and providing greater access to research and development.

Dan Meuser, who represents communities in western and northern Berks, did not share his colleagues' enthusiasm for the American Jobs Plan.

The Luzerne County Republican compared the plan to the recently passed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, saying both are much too expensive and much too wide in scope. He said he prefers taking a more targeted approach that focuses on public-private partnerships to tackle infrastructure problems.

"Look, fixing our infrastructure is very important," he said. "But this proposal is enormous and less than 20% goes toward what we would consider to be traditional infrastructure like roads and bridges."

Meuser said the way the Biden administration proposes to fund the plan is also troublesome.

The costs would be offset by raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% over 15 years, particularly from large multinationals that keep profits overseas.

"This bill in many ways — and I don't know how to put it any nicer — is an attack on small business," he said. "All you hear about is the increase on corporations, but what they fail to understand is that when those taxes go up the prices go up. It's a formula that falls in line and passes onto us."

Despite that opposition, Meuser said he's still interested in trying find a compromise on a proposal that better represents the needs of the people he represents. He assured the virtual crowd that this is an issue that he knows is important and deserves action.