In response to President Biden’s visit to Nevada to announce billions of dollars for new passenger rail projects, DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“While Donald Trump failed to get his ‘infrastructure week’ off the ground, communities across the country are now getting an infrastructure decade thanks to President ‘Amtrak Joe’ Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – and new investments announced today will put even more Americans to work building railways across the country. The president’s announcement today in Nevada is another reminder of the choice Americans will face on Election Day: a wannabe dictator who incentivized companies to ship jobs overseas and deprived communities of sorely-needed infrastructure funding, who is backed by MAGA Republicans in Congress hellbent on slashing these essential, job-creating investments, or the president who worked across the aisle to strengthen our infrastructure and help create good-paying jobs in the process: Joe Biden.”

NEW: President Biden is in Nevada today to announce billions of dollars for new passenger rail projects.

Bloomberg: “President Joe Biden will announce $8.2 billion in additional railway funds this week, according to a person familiar with the matter, boosting potential projects — including a high-speed line to Las Vegas. … The rail announcements, which follow the $16.4 billion Biden awarded last month for improvements on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, highlight efforts to showcase the results of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law two years ago.”

President Biden signed the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – investing billions to update our nation’s roads and bridges, renew our transportation networks, and ensure every American has clean drinking water and access to high-speed internet. 

Associated Press: “President Joe Biden signed his hard-fought $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law Monday before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn, declaring that the new infusion of cash for roads, bridges, ports and more is going to make life ‘change for the better’ for the American people.”

Reuters: “‘Finally, infrastructure week!’ Biden says, cheering $1 trillion bill”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star: “Biden administration sends millions to states for bridge repair, replacement”

Under Donald Trump’s administration, “infrastructure week” was a complete joke full of empty promises and failed plans to fix our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Administration officials claim that the President’s new infrastructure plan will support $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment, but his 2019 budget reveals that that number’s a mirage: the President would cut annual federal support for infrastructure in the long run and shift costs to states, cities, and private individuals. As we previewed here, it likely would mean cuts to some of the areas in which new infrastructure investment is needed most — while providing a potential windfall for private investors.” 

Washington Post: “Trump’s 2016 campaign pledges on infrastructure have fallen short, creating opening for Biden”

New York Times: “How ‘Infrastructure Week’ Became a Long-Running Joke”

“At this point in the Trump presidency, ‘Infrastructure Week’ is less a date on the calendar than it is a ‘Groundhog Day’-style fever dream doomed to be repeated.

“Roughly two years after the White House first came up with the idea of discussing, for all of seven days, the pursuit of a bipartisan agreement to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges and broadband networks, President Trump more or less torpedoed those plans on Wednesday in a Rose Garden speech.”

CNN: “Like the Bermuda Triangle or Spinal Tap’s new drummer, the words ‘Infrastructure Week’ seem to be cursed. No fewer than seven times – including this very week – has Trump’s White House declared that its chosen theme of a week would be infrastructure – only to see those plans thwarted, often by the President himself.”

Even after Trump left office, he railed against bipartisan efforts to turn his failed “infrastructure week” into President Biden’s historic “infrastructure decade.” 

Politico: “Donald Trump tried and failed to pass an infrastructure bill so many times over the course of his presidency that his attempts were reduced to a punchline. Now out of office, Trump is trying to ensure that his successor, Joe Biden, suffers the indignity of the ‘infrastructure week’ jokes as well.

“The former president has sounded off repeatedly in the past week about the negotiations taking place between Senate Republicans and Democrats on the Hill and in the White House. He’s encouraged GOP lawmakers to abandon the talks and criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for even entertaining them. Senate Republicans have said, in interviews, that they have directly asked the former president not just to tone down his criticism but to actually support the infrastructure deal.”

Nikki Haley decided to slam fellow Republicans for working with President Biden to pass the historic bill, writing off billions in investments to update America’s infrastructure as a “publicity stunt” and “nothing” to celebrate. 

Fox News: “Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s upcoming appearance with President Biden as a ‘publicity stunt’ and said the bipartisan infrastructure law that is reportedly serving as the basis of the event is ‘nothing’ to celebrate.”

Haley also pushed to eliminate our nation’s main infrastructure funding source and replace it with nothing. 

CNN: “Dubbed ‘The Freedom Plan,’ Haley’s proposal would eliminate the federal gas and reduce income tax rates, make small-business tax relief permanent, and end certain tax deductions such as the deduction for state and local income taxes, also known as SALT.” 

“Haley believes funding for infrastructure projects should come from general revenues, forcing them to compete with other spending priorities. ”

Ron DeSantis railed against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as “pork-barrel spending,” but he’s had no problem touting federal funding for infrastructure projects as his own… even though he has President Biden to thank. 

WPTV: “After calling the federal legislation ‘pork-barrel spending’ on Monday, DeSantis questioned whether Florida’s $19.1 billion was fair compared to other states … ‘Is Florida being treated well in this?’ DeSantis said while speaking at a news conference in Spring Hill. ‘Or, are they basically funneling money to a bunch of very, very high tax and dysfunctional states?’”

Orlando Sentinel: “Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on a spending spree for months, taking credit for millions of dollars in federal stimulus money he’s handing out to mostly rural Republican counties while at the same time bashing President Joe Biden’s big government spending. Federal bucks have bolstered the state budget for two years in a row, shoring up the state’s reserves, and funding such things as the governor’s job growth program, climate ‘resiliency’ against rising waters, road projects, broadband expansion, college training programs and tax cuts.”

Rolling Stone: “DeSantis Brags About Florida Budget That Includes Billions In Federal Funds He Opposed”

MAGA House Republicans continue to be hellbent on undermining the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law by proposing draconian cuts. 

Washington Post: “It took decades for Congress to deliver on its promise to pour new money into the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and internet connections. Now, House Republicans are trying to slash some of the same funds. A series of GOP bills to finance the federal government in 2024 would wipe out billions of dollars meant to repair the nation’s aging infrastructure, potentially undercutting a 2021 law that was one of Washington’s rare recent bipartisan achievements. The proposed cuts could hamstring some of the most urgently needed public-works projects across the country, from improving rail safety to reducing lead contamination at schools.”

Insider: “Many congressional Republicans have repeatedly attempted to slash funding for passenger rail and other infrastructure priorities. The House is poised to vote in early November on a transportation funding bill that would strip about $1.5 billion in funding from Amtrak — an approximately 64% cut in the rail system’s annual federal funding.”