Former Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger criticized his fellow Republicans who took credit for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that they initially opposed in 2021.
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law in 2021. The bill provides new funding for infrastructure projects, including broadband internet, roads and bridges, public transit, water infrastructure, power grids, and airports, among others. The infrastructure bill was passed in the House with the support of 13 Republicans, granting a win to President Joe Biden.
The Republicans who voted in favor of the bill in 2021 were: Kinzinger, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, John Katko of New York, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, David McKinley of West Virginia, Tom Reed of New York, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Fred Upton of Michigan, Jeff van Drew of New Jersey and Don Young of Alaska.
Those Republicans received backlash for supporting the bill at the time. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia even called them “traitors.”
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Some Republican senators voted against the bill at the time, including Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who celebrated on Tuesday in the wake of his state receiving funds to expand broadband services.
“Broadband is vital for the success of our rural communities and for our entire economy. Great to see Alabama receive crucial funds to boost ongoing broadband efforts,” he tweeted.
Republican Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas also shared news of his state receiving funding for broadband infrastructure, despite voting against the bill that made it happen.
The celebratory actions of Republicans who initially voted to kill the bill that made today’s broadband funding possible angered Kinzinger, who was previously criticized for voting in its favor.
“I can’t say how upsetting it is: I voted for this money and took a lot of heat from GOP. [Republican South Carolina Representative Nancy] Mace didn’t but is happy to pretend she did once the heat is off,” he wrote on Twitter.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday mocked Tuberville’s support of broadband funding in his state after opposing the president’s Bipartisan Infrastructure deal in 2021.
“The President and his allies have twisted Coach’s words beyond recognition. At no point did he ‘hail its passage,’ as Biden falsely claimed yesterday,” a spokesperson for Tuberville told Newsweek on Thursday, referring to Biden’s speech in Chicago where he spoke about inflation and the economy.
Tuberville’s spokesperson said that “nothing has changed” about the senator’s stance towards the infrastructure bill, and said that broadband made up only 4 percent of the spending in the infrastructure bill.
The Biden administration plans to invest $42.5 billion into boosting broadband access across the United States, including in areas that already have widespread access to broadband internet. On Monday, Biden vowed that every single person in the United States will have access to high-speed internet by 2030 due to broadband investments.
