Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Having It Both Ways

 Senator Roger Wicker proudly voted for the infrastructure blowout bill.  He  announced his vote in a speech to the U.S. Senate:


 

Madam President, I rise this afternoon to announce my support for this bipartisan infrastructure legislation.

Coming to this decision has not been easy or straightforward.  As the Minority Leader said recently: “I am quite confident that out of 100 United States Senators, there are 100 of us who believe this bill is imperfect.” Madam President I want to associate myself with that statement.

The bill we are now debating is far from perfect. If I were the only one with a pen, I would have made many changes.

But at the end of the day, I believe this package will do a great service for the United States of America and a great service for my state of Mississippi.

Republicans and Democrats agree that roads, bridges, broadband, ports, and rail are the building blocks of a healthy economy. This bill makes historic down payments on those core priorities.

I am pleased that this bill incorporates all of the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021, which Senator Cantwell and I cosponsored and which passed out of Commerce Committee by a vote of 25-3 with the support of 14 Democrats and 11 Republicans. The provisions of that bill ensure that Mississippi will get a fair shake in the competitive grant programs included in this bill, which total more than $20 billion.

This bill has a number of other vitally important provisions that will benefit Mississippi.

It provides my state a lump sum of $3.3 billion for roads and highways, as well as $225 million to replace and repair bridges. We will also be able to compete for funding from another $12.5 billion in bridge grants.

Madam President, Mississippi has nearly 6,000 miles of highway in poor condition, and over a thousand bridges are also in poor condition across our state. Commute times in Mississippi are up 5.6 percent over the last decade. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, Mississippi drivers on average are paying an extra $820 per year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs.

No one disputes that my state and other states are in desperate need of significant new funding for roads and bridges. And this legislation does that.

The historic investments in this bill mean that Mississippians can have an easier time dropping off their children at school and shorter commutes to work. First responders will also be able to reach those in need much more quickly, potentially saving lives.

Separately, Mississippi will receive $223 million for public transit, $283 million for water projects, and an estimated $100 million for airport upgrades and repairs.

Our ports and rail systems also stand to benefit.  This bill authorizes $2.25 billion for U.S. ports, $5 billion for rail through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements or (CRISI) program, and $3 billion to provide safety features for grade crossings. Something that is desperately needed across this country.

This bill will also clear away obstacles for major construction projects by streamlining the federal permitting process.

The Army Corps of Engineers will get $9.5 billion, meaning Mississippi will have new funding opportunities for flood control projects, which are badly needed.

And high-need communities will be first in line for those projects, thanks to an amendment I sponsored with the senior Senators from Delaware and Oklahoma.  This should benefit urban areas like the Pearl River Basin as well as rural areas throughout Mississippi, and throughout our nation, which have faced the constant threat of flooding for far too long.

In another positive provision of this bill, the Senate adopted my amendment authorizing the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) for the first time ever.  It had never been authorized, Madam President. This will send new business resources to rural areas and a boost of support to historically black colleges and universities, which are economic anchors in their communities. 

And I would add the good news we got last month: Mississippi will soon be home to a new MBDA center.

Madam President, I also want to mention rural broadband, which will see a tremendous boost because of this legislation.

This bill lines up $65 billion to be spent on broadband deployment, taking us one giant step toward closing the digital divide. Based on the federal formula, Mississippi will receive a minimum of $100 million from these funds. 

That’s on top of the $495 million Mississippi was recently awarded through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions and the $275 million in COVID relief funds that we are spending on broadband infrastructure in Mississippi.

No Senator has been a stronger advocate than I have on broadband buildout. Reliable, high-speed broadband is critical to ensuring rural states are competitive for the next generation – and this bill will help us get there.

It is no secret that I have registered my concerns about the way this bill waives some of the normal processes that make for good federal rulemaking. 

As written, this bill makes it so that the NTIA can choose not to receive public comment on its broadband buildout plans.  And it short-circuits the judicial review section of the Administrative Procedures Act, giving stakeholders a much smaller voice in the overall buildout process.

I hope the NTIA will take care to avoid the wasteful and costly mistakes of the past and make sure these broadband dollars are spent efficiently, effectively, and with the benefit of stakeholder comment.

Madam President, I was pleased that my colleagues included language to prohibit the federal government from setting broadband rates. This would have been an unwelcome intrusion into the private market, and the inclusion of this clarifying language was absolutely critical. 

The internet in this country has been able to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic in large part because of our light-touch regulatory framework, which has encouraged more broadband buildout. This stands in stark contrast to our European friends who suffered severe slowdowns because of their burdensome internet rules.

One pivotal moment of this debate on this subject involved a colloquy that I shared last week with the senior Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen, the chief negotiator for this title. Senator Shaheen confirmed on the Senate floor that preventing regulation of internet rates was the express intent of the language in the broadband title. 

Without this specific language in the legislation and the assurance made during that colloquy, I would not have been able to support this bill on final passage.

Some have expressed concern about the cost of this bill. Offsets have been provided, and the negotiators provided pay-fors for every expenditure. 

But admittedly, the Congressional Budget Office did not agree with all the pay-fors – but Republicans for decades have advocated more use of dynamic scoring. And I wish CBO had used dynamic scoring in this instance. It is unfortunate that the CBO refuses to acknowledge that economic growth will result in higher revenues. 

It should be clear to us all that the investments in this legislation will generate a stronger economy and larger sums of revenue. Experts have predicted these investments will make it less costly for businesses to operate and will lead to greater productivity.

For example, the widely used Penn Wharton Budget Model has projected this bill will increase hourly wages by 0.1 percent and reduce government debt by 0.9 percent. You heard that right – the Penn Wharton model says this bill will reduce government debt. A prediction not to be taken lightly.

Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute, a respected conservative think tank, has said these investments in hard infrastructure will ease the pressure on inflation rather than contributing to inflation.

In other words, this investment in infrastructure will result in tremendous economic growth – growth that some of our budgetary bean-counters are not willing to account for.

Now, it is important to make this point emphatically: this legislation involving hard infrastructure – which I support – stands in sharp contrast to the Democrats’ forthcoming bill, which will certainly not gain even one Republican vote, and which the 50 Democrats in the Senate and a slim majority in the House hope to pass with only Democrat votes.

They say their bill will be Infrastructure Part Two, but a momentary glance at what they are proposing should dispel any notion that their bill counts as real infrastructure.

I will say it clearly and for the record: My Democratic colleagues are teeing up for next week a reckless tax-and-spending spree that our country does not need, and cannot afford.

The Democrats’ reckless budget bill will amount to a staggering $3.5 trillion. It threatens the successful Trump tax cuts. It includes crushing tax hikes on job creators, hundreds of billions in wasteful giveaways to green corporations, and a slew of spending that would heat up inflation, jeopardize our recovery, and drive our nation deeper into debt.

Democrats are even considering an amnesty measure – in the midst of the worst border crisis in recent memory – without giving a thought to improving border security, which would count as real infrastructure.

But that is next week’s bill, not this one.  This bill – the bipartisan bill that I am supporting tonight – is the real infrastructure deal that America needs. 

As the Senate moves forward with this important debate, and as I consider the infrastructure needs of my own state of Mississippi, it is instructive for me to recall the history of infrastructure programs I have personally seen at the state level. 

In 1968, my father was a first-term State Senator from Pontotoc, Union, and Benton Counties in North Mississippi. One of his major goals that year was the passage of a comprehensive four-lane highway program. That was 1968.

The legislature met from January until September of that year, with vote after vote on the highway bill, before finally adjourning in frustration with the hope of trying again next year. 

Sadly, the next year came and went, as did others, with no meaningful highway legislation. It was not until 1987, a full nineteen years later – when I myself was a candidate for the State Senate – that a major four-lane highway bill was finally enacted. And only then by the tiniest of margins in a vote to override a gubernatorial veto. 

If you ask almost anyone involved in economic development efforts during the decades that followed, and even today, they will tell you that the 1987 four-lane highway bill was one of Mississippi's most significant pieces of legislation for job creation.

For this small-town boy from Mississippi, this is just as pivotal a moment. For my state's economy, today is such a moment. When will it come again? Maybe next year, maybe the next administration. Maybe 19 years. Can we afford to pass on this opportunity? We cannot afford to pass this opportunity up.

I will be voting “Yes” on this legislation.

 Well, the good Senator sent out this press release earlier this week.  

 Wicker Calls out Democrats Reckless Tax and Spending Spree

$3.5 Trillion Proposal Will Be Gateway to Tax Hikes, Inflation, & Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

 “It is important to make this point emphatically: this legislation involving hard infrastructure – which I support – stands in sharp contrast to the Democrats’ forthcoming bill, which will certainly not gain even one Republican vote, and which the 50 Democrats in the Senate and a slim majority in the House hope to pass with only Democrat votes.

“They say their bill will be Infrastructure Part Two, but a momentary glance at what they are proposing should dispel any notion that their bill counts as real infrastructure.

“I will say it clearly and for the record: My Democratic colleagues are teeing up for next week a reckless tax-and-spending spree that our country does not need, and cannot afford.

“The Democrats’ reckless budget bill will amount to a staggering $3.5 trillion. It threatens the successful Trump tax cuts. It includes crushing tax hikes on job creators, hundreds of billions in wasteful giveaways to green corporations, and a slew of spending that would heat up inflation, jeopardize our recovery, and drive our nation deeper into debt.

“Democrats are even considering an amnesty measure – in the midst of the worst border crisis in recent memory – without giving a thought to improving border security, which would count as real infrastructure.”

 

 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

tl;dr

Anonymous said...

So what? The money is printed from nothing so why not use it?
As long as they keep most of the newly printed money at the top they can keep more people working than not.
And that is truly what matters. Keep the plebs working their dead end jobs to pay taxes and service the interest on the national debt.
Keep borrowing to fund the military industrial complex.
And the farmers
And the bankers
Keep pumping up the stock market
And the most important is to keep expanding the size of government and funding five eyes and the surveillance police state.

Anonymous said...

Money to be spent in Mississippi. Good vote. Score one for the home team.

Anonymous said...

You realize the $1 trillion infrastructure bill is not the same as the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill, right? I don’t like either, but it’s certainly possible to support one and not the other.

Anonymous said...

Time to get him out of there.

Anonymous said...

Infrastructure bill also provides the framework for a mile usage tax which will be just great for a rural agricultural state. wicker is useless and needs to be primaried.

Anonymous said...

Good for him. Cindy, on the other hand, followed the advice of Trump instead of taking care of her constituents.

Anonymous said...

Ditto 1:09; it's all a big charade.

Anonymous said...

Hundreds of millions going into "broadband" meaning we will be spending money on 1990s technology. By the time its built, we'll be getting much faster access in rural areas from Starlink or 6G.

Anonymous said...

And that’s his job.

He’s not smart so he not going to solve Middle East peace. Recall he is a lawyer who bought imaginary timber….stupid.

He’s never made a single difference to surrounding states.

His highest and best use is to suck money to Mississippi.

Well done boy. Now sit.

Anonymous said...

@1:35
Starlink is cool technology but our star could fuck it up in seconds. Better to have buried fiber.

Anonymous said...

Mississippi continues to be a welfare state. If the union knew how much the old confederacy was going to leach off of them in tax dollars they probably would have let them go. Lincoln may have freed the slaves, but people up north have to work every day so they can pay taxes to fund the South's lack of productivity and personal responsibility.

Anonymous said...

Talk about voting against your own best interest , Interstate 14 was approved with this bill and it’s going to run right thru Brookhaven, you think CHS even knows its in the bill . I am glad Wicker is looking out for us.

Anonymous said...

I haven't been this pissed off about a vote from our nothing of a senator in a LONG time! 23% goes to infrastructure, and the rest to completely, wasteful (i.e. progressive) causes. Listen to our next door neighbor's assessment of the bill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX9Wn2B5h1o He clearly knows a lot more about it than me, but the main thing this bill does is open the door for the NEXT 3.5 trillion dollar money orgy (that's 3 and a half million million dollars, if you need some perspective)!

In my opinion, his vote against Trump's emergency order on the border was bad enough, but combined with this example of a complete lack of judgement, it should be automatically disqualifying for him to be elected back into this seat!

When you find yourself in the company of a split-off movement with Graham, Murkowski, Collins, and Romney, and you STILL vote with them, it's time for you to find a new line of "work!"

I may not be able to do much, but I'm damn sure to do what I can to remind everyone I can about these two votes of Wicker's and Guest's vote FOR the January 6th "bipartisan" commission! Kinzinger and Cheney as the "republican" voices? You've GOT to be shitting me!

Anonymous said...

Not really sure if the Republicans have had any coherent platform since Trump took over. They are walking hypocrites with no shame. At some point, they will have to sell some vision to their potential voters and I’m just not sure they even know where to start. Servicing billionaires and giving lip service to evangelicals seems to be their only concern recently.

Anonymous said...

We just heard his campaign points for his next upcoming election. Unfortunately, he has been bought by the democrats with teh lure of infrastructure money. This "infrastucture" bill is more than infrastructure and he has helped the left put into place more of their mechanisms to dismantle the constitutional safeguards and bankrupt the country at the same time (my children will be proud). Time for someone to primary him.

Jimmy B said...

Didn't vote for him last time and will not next time. I do not understand why republicans go to the polls like a bunch of mind numb robots and vote for these sorry ass incumbents. After two terms all incumbents no longer represent us they represent themselves.

Anonymous said...

@2:19
NPR, CNN and MSNBC would tell you what to think, even if they did. So you would still be a clueless, uninformed libtard sheeple.

Frank Griffin said...

Senator Hyde-Smith is a Trump handmaid. Senator Wicker is his own man, even when he is riding with the Naked Emperor. The infrastructure bill is long overdue, and will pay for itself many times over. I see that the usual blithering idiots are offering their airtight arguments against it, but they can go back to fishing in potholes while the rest of us enjoy a smoother course. Cowboy up!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Roger. I'll be voting against you next time.

Anonymous said...

All you backward clowns that think Wicker did something good are just as stupid as all the clowns that voted for the corrupt democRATS. That bill is nothing more than democRAT/RINO pork bill!

Anonymous said...

I emailed him and asked where, exactly, he thinks the $3.3 billion for roads and highways, $225 million to replace and repair bridges and additional $12.5 billion in bridge grants will come from. I breathlessly await his answer.

(The correct answer is our children and grandchildren will pay the price.)

He is 70 years old and has a few years left on his current term as I understand. So he's not worried about the next election. Besides, he knows that another RINO will take his place whenever he leaves.

Anonymous said...

Will/do your children/grandchildren make more than 400k a year. Mine is a doctor I expect him to pay !

Anonymous said...

The biggest possible economic boost for Brookhaven an interstate highway and Cindy votes against it! Remember when she shows up for the ribbon cutting

Anonymous said...

The Democratic budget will cut taxes for American families, lower costs, create good-paying jobs, invest in our future, while tackling the climate change crisis.

And it will be paid for by the wealthy and corporations paying their fair share.

Anonymous said...

Everybody knows he spoke to an empty chamber. Nobody sits there and listens to politicians drone on. But, you can list your name as wanting to hold the mic for awhile.

Don't forget this triple-dipper voted for the multiple trillion dollar money give-away hogwash yesterday. He said he voted for it because there was money in there for Mizzipi. He knew it would pass without his being there. Would have sent a better message to have just voted present...or simply walked out.

Anonymous said...

Be interesting to see how many folks apply for work. Can't even get a kid to work at Sonics now a days.

Anonymous said...

This is a terrible bill, 2700 pages, you think Wicker even knows what all is in it? Only around 27% is for infrastructure, the rest is BS. Time for Wicker to go.

Anonymous said...

Amen Jimmy B. We have got to start taking the long view at the voting box. If he doesn't get primaried in the next election i'll vote democrat just to get him out. Even if you like all this pork barrel crap that trades on our children's future look at his overall record. MS can do so much better.

Anonymous said...

People who lean on the "corporations and wealthy" will pay for the tax increase have no idea of how the economy works! If they think "corporate America" will pay for it, wait until they see the rise in the costs of products they purchase. Corporations will not "eat" this tax increase; they will pass it on to us good ole' working idiots!

John said...

"But at the end of the day, I believe this package will do a great service for the United States of America and a great service for my state of Mississippi."

What a dipshit. 50% or more of it will be wasted or stolen.

If a Tree Falls In The Forest... said...

If a reading occurs in a room where the reader is the only one present, is it really a speech?



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