Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) joined SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday where he discussed his Safer Schools Act and President Joe Biden’s pricey infrastructure bill.
“It’s bipartisan and all of this have been concerned with what we’ve seen through the years of safety of our children, our grandchildren, our teachers and this is a bipartisan bill that we have got going through the House and I think it’ll hopefully pass the Senate and get the president to sign it,” Williams told host Joel Pollak of the legislation.
“It’s a 1.2 billion dollar bill spent over five years that schools can get analysis from what we call an expert — could be local law enforcement or whatever — and what they need to secure their school,” Williams continued. “They apply for a grant through the Department of Justice and they get their money; they get their repairs done.”
“Every school will be different,” Williams added. “This won’t go to districts. It will go to individual schools. This is something that we had going to the 116th Congress. We ran out of time, but because it is bipartisan I feel like we oughta be able to get this done. We need to get this done with what we see happening in our schools the last couple of years.”
Describing the legislation as a “good bill that should stand on its own,” Williams said he believes “Democrats have a way of taking a good bill and putting it in with a bad bill to try to get the bad bill passed.”
“I’m hoping because it’s bipartisan, it should be a standalone bill that we can get through without issue, but you never know,” Williams said. “The Democrats got a lot of bad bills out there that don’t even have support of its own people. So, I’m hoping it doesn’t get caught up in that.”
“These kids and children, as you know, are the most precious and the future of our country and we need to protect them,” he added, saying he hopes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will help move it along and get it through to the Senate.
Williams also discussed infrastructure under Biden’s administration, saying it should also be a “bipartisan” effort.
“Right now, as it stands, this is just a big tax increase is what it is,” Williams said of Biden’s infrastructure plan. “To me, infrastructure is pretty simple. It’s highways, it’s bridges, it’s ports, it’s airports, it’s trains; it’s certainly broadband which we need in Texas very badly. That’s what infrastructure is. It’s not social issues. It’s not trying to pick winners and losers between electricity and solar…”
Williams also said the biggest problem with Biden’s infrastructure plan, in his opinion, is that there is “no mention of private sector involvement.”
“We can bring the cost down drastically to get the private sector involved,” Williams said. “We’ve done it in Texas before. I think most people will agree the private sector will get it done faster, it’ll be cheaper, it’ll be better than the government. Let’s get the private sector involved in it. Let’s let the private sector be able to get a return on their investment and let’s treat it like a business deal.”
“If you do that, you bring that 2.2 down sizably, almost to the $600 billion we’ve seen from Republicans,” Williams added. “They’ve got to get serious.”
Williams also noted that Fort Hood, an area he represents, is concerned about infrastructure, saying “this is a big deal.”
To listen to Williams’ full interview with Breitbart News, click here.
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