Exclusive – Heritage Action Issues Key Vote Against $1.2 Trillion So-Called Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill

Heritage Action for America issued a key vote against the $1.2 trillion so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

The House will likely vote Thursday on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, otherwise known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684).

“Divisions remain between the moderates and progressives of Pelosi’s party, with the latter group threatening to tank the infrastructure vote without reconciliation. Pelosi claims infrastructure and reconciliation are now delinked, but the evidence tells another story,” Anderson said. “In addition, this infrastructure framework is still a bad deal for conservatives. The legislation recklessly spends $1 trillion on liberal policy priorities, despite the fact that the national debt and inflation are both out of control, all of which Democrats claim is ‘paid for’ by using slick accounting tricks. We are urging all conservatives to vote no.”

Heritage Action said in their release that voting for the bill would only enable President Joe Biden’s even more radical $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

US President Joe Biden speaks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. (ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images).

The activist organization said in their release:

This week, the House will be voting on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684), the so-called “bipartisan” infrastructure package. The legislation recklessly spends $1 trillion, despite the fact that the national debt is approaching $30 trillion and inflation is surging to levels not seen in 13 years, all of which is “paid” for by using slick accounting tricks. Not only is the deal bad policy, but it is also a bad process, as it is a prerequisite to passing the rest of President Biden’s catastrophic agenda through a Democrat-only reconciliation package.]

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This infrastructure package should be opposed on process and policy. Supporters of the bill often reference crumbling roads and bridges when naming reasons for their support, but the deal earmarks almost as much money for the subsidization of railroads and public transit ($105 billion) as it does for rebuilding roads and bridges ($110 billion). Of that sum, nearly $40 billion would go to public transit authorities, despite the fact that Congress sent more than $67 billion to transit under the guise of pandemic relief funds over the past year and a half, a staggering amount that is equal to more than three years of revenue from fares, parking fees, and advertising, most of which becomes welfare for labor unions.

The package also includes almost $8 billion in subsidies for electric vehicle chargers, even though profit incentives have driven private actors in the auto industry, independent startups, and utilities across the country to rush to build charging stations on their own. These are just a few examples of the bloated spending in the deal, which could not come at a worse time as the nation deals with the worst inflation in more than a decade.

Heritage Action noted that the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill contains misleading provisions that would not offset the bill’s $1.2 trillion price tag. The conservative organization said that selling of 5G wireless spectrum and selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be used to pay off the debt, not to finance new spending.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill would add $256 billion to the deficit over ten years. The Penn-Wharton Budget model noted that the bipartisan infrastructure bill would not result in “significant” economic growth.

Republicans in and out of Congress have pushed House Republicans not to support the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced last week that he would whip Republicans against the bill. President Donald Trump has called on Republicans to oppose the bill as well.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) arrives for a news conference with members of the Republican caucus. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images).

The bipartisan infrastructure would also advance leftist priorities by:

• Defining “gender identity” as a protected class;
• Doling out “digital equity” grants partly based on racial or ethnic minority status;
• Introducing state-mandated carbon reduction program;
• Containing funding for “zero-emission vehicles”;
• Addressing “over-the-road bus tolling equity”;
• Containing the word “equity” 64 times; and
• Providing roughly $2.5 billion to help the U.S. government expand the border processing stations used by migrants from poor Central American nations and other regions around the world.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.