ICYMI: POPULAR INFRASTRUCTURE BILL UNPOPULAR AMONG FAR-RIGHT PA-GOV CANDIDATES

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board called the infrastructure bill “an opportunity for Pennsylvania and the nation to accomplish big things,” but apparently the Republicans running for Governor don’t support it. 

PENNSYLVANIA — Over 100 organizations have endorsed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — but the far-right PA-Gov candidates have refused to join them in supporting this historic legislation — instead, they’re once again putting Trump first.

While this legislation will bring historic investments to communities across the country — including right here in our Commonwealth — some GOP supporters of the bill skipped the signing at the White House as Trump and his MAGA base made escalating threats against Republicans who support the bill.

An opinion piece in The Morning Call summed up Republicans’ refusal to support this bill saying, “What’s disappointing is that there wasn’t more bipartisan support for the infrastructure bill. […] Republican representatives who voted for the bill Friday were chastised by some of the misfits in their party for helping the Democrats to achieve one of their party’s goals. They weren’t helping Democrats. They were helping Americans. They were helping their country. Our politicians have forgotten that is their job. They need a refresher on what their role is.”

While the far-right PA-Gov candidates still refuse to support the bill, check out some of what Pennsylvania’s leaders have said about this massive investment in local communities:

As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, PennDOT spokeswoman Alexis Campbell said in a statement, “This investment will allow Pennsylvania to invest billions of dollars to modernize our infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports, and rail, while creating sustainable, good-paying jobs that will be transformative of our transportation system and our local economy […] These critical investments — along with state-level solutions — will help close Pennsylvania’s growing transportation funding gap, and connect Pennsylvanians to opportunity and each other, and move us forward.”

The president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, Darren Kelly, raved about the bill, telling KDKA, “Everything from building roads, bridges, dams, telecommunications, internet broadband, electrical car charging stations, lead pipe removed for their stormwater replacement, legacy pollution funding, which is so important for this area’s old abandoned mines and wells […] There’s so much that we can talk about for hours but western Pennsylvania is in such a great position, number one to get the family staying jobs, but to clean up areas that were left neglected.”

Rich Roman, state Department of Transportation district executive for Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties, highlighted to the Times-Tribune all that this legislation will allow communities to do, saying, “These were projects that we had on our active portfolio for design, but they were out in the outer (later) years of our (12-year) transportation plan […] So we’re really excited to see this level of investment in our infrastructure and we’re looking forward to it being finalized and getting the final rules in place for what we need to do and how we’re going to do it.”

Ryan Boyer, the new business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, told the Philadelphia Tribune, “We have a lot of problems in Philadelphia […] The No. 1 social program is a good union job and this bill is going to provide good union jobs […] We’re going to have direct investments in jobs in this bill […] Whether it’s people working on highways or bridges, working on community corridors, this bill has it all.”

Roxanne Brown, the international vice president-at-large with the United Steelworkers, stated simply to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “All we saw and all we see with that [infrastructure bill] is jobs, jobs, additional jobs and more jobs.” 

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