Republicans blasted for taking credit for infrastructure spending after voting ‘no’

Democrats are promising to keep tabs during the 2022 campaign on Republican lawmakers praising projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law even though they voted against it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office blasted out a compilation of the growing list — and journalists have also been taking note.

Lawmakers like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) have all touted parts of the $14 billion recently allocated from the law to the Army Corps of Engineers making its way to their districts.

During a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, a senior Democratic official said the mixed messages on infrastructure would definitely come up in negative ads against Republicans during midterm elections. “You’re going to see it,” said Brad Woodhouse, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee. He added those ads are going to come from local campaigns as well as "out of Super PACs.”

In the House of Representatives, 200 Republicans (as well as six Democrats) voted against the bill late last year. All of them will face voters in November. On the Senate side, 30 Republicans voted no during the vote last August.

Pelosi’s office says these lawmakers “have been caught voting no and taking the dough” while some of her colleagues have been somewhat less polite.

Tell the truth @RepAshleyHinson — you didn’t vote for this bill. You voted for a dam collapse. If you had your way your neighbors would be underwater. Thankfully, @HouseDemocrats passed this bill and we did your dam job. Give me a break. https://t.co/XKT3SyJ2f4

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 20, 2022

In the case of Hinson, a spokesperson justified the move to Yahoo Finance by noting that the congresswoman "opposed the infrastructure package because it was tied to trillions of other spending in the House."

But then once it had passed, if there's "federal money on the table she is, of course, going to do everything she can to make sure it is reinvested in Iowa,” the spokesperson added.

Hinson signed on to a letter in December after the law had passed that helped pushed the money towards a specific project along the Mississippi River she later touted.

'Not unusual'

During the debate over the legislation last November, Hinson said the bill represented “the biggest leap toward socialism this nation has ever seen.” Others have called it a “so-called ‘infrastructure’ bill” or a "massive waste of taxpayer money" and House Minority Whip Scalise organized opposition to the bill.

The overall argument from many Republicans is that these are priorities lawmakers had already pushed outside of the infrastructure debate. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) said in a recent interview that Democrats have done the same thing in other circumstances and the practice of taking credit like this is bipartisan and “is unfortunately, not unusual.”

President Biden is promising to campaign extensively in 2022 on issues like this. Biden has summed up the message this way: “What are Republicans for? What are they for? Name me one thing they’re for.” Brady also lists issues “we would be happy to work with this president on” but he says the White House never calls.

Regardless of the infrastructure issue, prognosticators say Republicans are clear favorites to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November and possibly win the U.S. Senate as well. But Woodhouse says if Republicans “have no agenda of their own, I don't think they're going to do as well as they're acting like they're going to do.”

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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