The United States Capitol.
Last night, Nov. 5, at 36 minutes before midnight, the United States House of Representatives passed President Joe Biden’s infrastructure investment plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, by a vote of 228 to 206.
House Resolution 3684 will pump $1.2 trillion into the US economy over the next ten years to improve and repair roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
(A look at provisions specifically benefiting Southwest Florida will appear in a subsequent post.)
Biden called the vote “a monumental step forward as a nation.” In a statement he said the bill would create jobs, improve the movement of goods to market, make high speed Internet available and affordable to more Americans and address climate change issues, among many other benefits.
“Generations from now, people will look back and know this is when America won the economic competition for the 21st Century,” he said.
All of Southwest Florida’s congressmen, Reps. Byron Donald (R-19-Fla.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), voted against the bill.
Donalds had been a particularly vociferous and active opponent of the bill, in keeping with the Republican doctrine of absolute opposition to any Biden initiatives.
“Last night, I voted NO on the Democrats’ inFAKEstructure bill that will increase our debt and only dedicate less than 25% of the massive 1.75 TRILLION to America’s real infrastructure needs,” he posted on Facebook. “As witnessed last Tuesday, Democrat policies aren’t popular, especially in my district.”
In a statement titled “House Republicans Vote Against Millions of American Jobs & Funds for Their Districts,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) noted: “A total of 200 House Republicans just voted against millions of American jobs and funds for urgently needed infrastructure in their districts.”
She continued: “House Republicans voted against economic growth, good-paying union jobs and fixing the broken infrastructure that weakens our economy, hurts families, and causes added costs and delays for American businesses.”
The ultimate vote was bipartisan with six Democrats voting against the bill and 13 Republicans voting for it.
The six Democrats were:
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-16-NY)
Rep. Cori Bush (D-1-Mo.)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-14-NY)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-5-Minn.)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-7-Mass.)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-13-Mich.)
The 13 Republicans were:
Rep. Don Bacon (R-2-Neb.)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1-Pa.)
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-2-NY)
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-16-Ohio)
Rep. John Katko (R-24-NY)
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-16-Ill.)
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-11-NY)
Rep. David McKinley (R-1-W.Va.)
Rep. Tom Reed (R-23-NY)
Rep. Chris Smith (R-4-NJ)
Fred Upton (R-4-Mich.)
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2-NJ)
Rep. Don Young (R-at large-Alaska)
Liberty lives in light
(c) 2021 by David Silverberg