On Nov. 5, the US House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act by a vote of 228-206. The U.S. Senate had already passed the bill, which now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Among the 206 No votes, were six democrats, including Westchester Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, and NYC Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Bowman released a statement explaining his no vote for the fudning of $110 billion for the nation’s highways, bridges and roads; $66 billion in passenger rail; $39 billion in public transit; $65 billion in broadband access; $65 billion in the nation’s power grid; and $55 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure, among other areas. The White House said the plan will create on average 1.5 million jobs per year over the next decade.
“Our country is experiencing multiple and layered crises on top of historical harm. Transformative investment and courageous action is needed to meet this moment, and we have the power to do it. Roads and bridges are important. We must absolutely invest in our physical infrastructure. It is a positive development to see the infrastructure bill pass, but it is also not lost upon me that 90% of jobs in physical infrastructure go to men; yet, women account for four times the job loss to men during the pandemic. Families and children are in need of help with childcare, paid leave, housing, prescription drug costs and so much more. The climate crisis remains looming. The physical infrastructure bill alone does not hold the policies to address any of these issues.
“This is why my progressive colleagues and I were consistently clear for months that we intend to move both the Build Back Better Act and the physical infrastructure bill together and vote for them at the same time. This was the agreement we understood and the promise I shared. However, my conservative colleagues moved the goalpost and asked for budget scoring despite the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) verifying that the Build Back Better Act is fully paid for and the White House providing their own budget estimates confirming JCT’s report. We were asked to vote only on physical infrastructure at the last hour and to delay the needs and ignore the suffering of our constituents with the weakest assurance that the original agreement would be kept. The agreement was broken. Therefore, I voted no on a physical infrastructure bill that came without the Build Back Better Act.
“We can only build back better by ensuring the health and prosperity of seniors, women, children, immigrants and our planet. We need policies that bring America into the present day, with other developed countries, so that we can end our reliance on fossil fuels, provide paid leave to all, and eradicate child poverty. We can and need to meet this moment. And the country needs a government that keeps its word to women, families, children and immigrants.
“I support the president’s full agenda, which includes passing both the infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act together, and I look forward to continuing to work with the administration to see to it that we build back better for all. Our work is not done,” said Rep. Bowman.
Westchester’s two other members of Congress, Rep. Mondaire Jones and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, voted yes on the bill. “Today, we took a historic step to pass President Biden’s transformational Build Back Better agenda by passing the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and advancing the Build Back Better Act. I’m proud that the bill we passed tonight will deliver much-needed investments in our nation’s physical infrastructure, ensuring we remain competitive in the 21st century.
“But let me be clear: my top priority remains enacting the Build Back Better Act, which contains the vast majority of President Biden’s broadly-popular agenda. Thanks to the leadership of House Progressives, we are closer than ever to doing exactly that. Tonight my conservative Democratic colleagues gave me, and the nation, their word that they will vote for the Build Back Better Act no later than the week of November 15. For the first time, this small handful of conservative Democrats committed to supporting bold climate action, an expansion of Medicare to include hearing coverage, a lift of the cap on State and Local Tax deductions that has unjustly burdened working families in my district and communities like mine across the country, and universal child care for working families, which I am proud to have helped secure in this bill. I look forward to my colleagues making good on their promises as quickly as possible, so that we can pass the Build Back Better Act and begin delivering the life-changing investment working- and middle-class families across our nation need and deserve,” said Rep. Jones.
