Four of the 19 Senate Republicans who voted for $1.2 trillion “infrastructure” hoax are seeking reelection in 2022 and will presumably tout billions in political payoffs from President Joe Biden in exchange for their “infrastructure” vote.
Their vote enables Biden’s two-track scheme of passing the $3.5 trillion Trojan horse reconciliation package, which is full of far-left items, such as expanding Medicare, amnesty, global warming initiatives, and subsidized racial equity and environmental justice initiatives.
1.) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who called the legislation “a truly historic investment in our country and state,” won the following favors from the American taxpayer according to her website:
- Authorizes $273 billion in Federal-aid highway formula funding that will provide roughly $3.5 billion in highway funding for Alaska over five years to construct, rebuild, and maintain its roads and highways.
- Provides $40 billion in funding for bridge construction, maintenance and repair. Of that, $27.5 billion will be apportioned by formula to ensure every state’s bridges are provided with needed resources, and Alaska should receive $225 million to address more than 140 bridges considered to be “structurally deficient.”
- $15 billion in formula funding for the FAA Airport Improvement Program which supports projects such as planning, installing and expanding runways, gates, and taxiways and improving runway lighting and navigation.
- $5 billion for FAA’s Facilities and Equipment Program, which includes funding for FAA-owned Air Traffic Control facilities and contract towers. Alaska, with so many of its communities accessible only by air, depends on safety in the skies.
- $5 billion in grants for a new Airport Terminal Improvement Program, which includes set asides for small hub airports, nonhub, and nonprimary airports, ensuring airports in communities of all sizes benefit.
- $5 billion for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) Program to assist the Alaska Railroad with critical capital projects and rail safety technologies.
- Provides more than $180 million over five years for water and wastewater projects in Alaska through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs.
- $3.5 billion for Indian Health Services sanitation facilities. This will provide significant resources for rural Alaska villages in need of water and sanitation. Numerous rural Alaska Native communities are still unserved and lack access to in-home water and sewer. This unprecedented investment in sanitation infrastructure will clear all known project needs.
- $10 billion for states to address PFAS contamination through Clean Water and Drinking Water programs, with a focus on small and disadvantaged communities.
- Provides $75 million for the Denali Commission, which funds economic development and infrastructure in rural Alaska.
- Includes $465 million for U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers’ Continuing Authorities Program, which will help smaller communities across the country.
- Funds $429 million on the Coast Guard’s unfunded priority list and for childcare development centers. This funding will support our Coast Guard personnel in Kodiak, Sitka, and Ketchikan. An additional $5 million has also been funded for the operational and maintenance costs of these efforts.
2.) Mike Crapo (R-ID), who dubbed the spending spree a “bipartisan investment,” received the following funding for projects in his state according to his website:
- Authorizes $1.9 billion for Idaho to construct, rebuild and maintain its roads and highways.
- Authorizes $213 million for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in Idaho, and includes funding for Bureau of Reclamation water storage, groundwater and conveyance projects in Idaho that include water storage for the Boise River Project.
- $25 billion nationwide for additional airport improvement projects, such as assistance with expansions, planning, runway rebuilding and improvements, lighting and air navigation facilities.
- $225 million for bridge construction, maintenance and repair in Idaho.
- More than $3.3 billion available for Idaho and other states for wildland firefighting efforts and an additional $5.75 billion nationwide for natural resources infrastructure, including fire management and reduction.
- A three-year reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) program, through Fiscal Year 2023.
- $100 million for broadband expansion in Idaho, with extra funding based on maps created by legislation Crapo helped enact, which show where additional broadband is most needed.
- Reduces federal over-regulation by reforming the permitting process to speed construction projects.
3.) Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who complained the “bill isn’t perfect” and that “nobody got everything they wanted,” plastered on his website the benefits he won:
- Guarantees Iowa $431 million for bridge repair, with more competitive grant funding available.
- Authorizes $227 million over the next five years for Iowa through the existing Clean Water State Revolving Fund program and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which have been around for decades. These funds will help Iowa’s years-long efforts to further improve water quality.
- Provides funds to state and local communities to carry out mitigation projects that reduce the risk of natural disasters.
- Provides $65 billion to increase access to broadband services, with a particular focus on unserved and underserved communities, including rural Iowa.
- Contains key Grassley provisions and priorities such as addressing the backlog for Operations and Maintenance and Investigation Accounts through the Army Corps of Engineers.
- Invests $4.2 billion in repairing Iowa’s roads, with the opportunity to compete for additional resources. The bill also includes a new grant program for rural transportation projects.
4.) John Hoeven (R-ND), who claimed the legislation would “make it harder for Democrats to pass their $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend bill,” grabbed the following from the American taxpayer for his state according to his website:
- Securing $115 million in the Army Corps’ Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 work plan for permanent flood protection in the Fargo-Moorhead region.
- Passing the authorization for the Minot region’s flood protection project as part of the year-end legislation passed by Congress in December. This authorization enables the project’s fourth phase to receive federal funding.
- Securing more than $114 million in federal funding for the new Williston Basin International Airport, which opened in October 2019. Williston Basin International is the first primary airport built in the last nine years on undeveloped land, with only seven such airports being constructed in the last 45 years.
- Securing an additional $8 billion in additional discretionary funding for highway programs, over the past three years alone, including $3 billion for the Bridge Repair and Rehabilitation Program, under which North Dakota has received nearly $50 million.
- Advancing his Move America Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide tax credits and tax-exempt bonds as a flexible funding source to help grow and repair the country’s infrastructure.
- Deploying broadband infrastructure. Among other things, Hoeven has secured more than $2.2 billion across FY2018-2021 for the ReConnect Program, a rural broadband loan and grant pilot program.
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