Every Republican member of Alabama’s congressional delegation voted against the Democrats’ $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week on a largely partisan basis by a 228-206 margin.
The bill, which had previously passed the U.S. Senate, was signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this week.
According to U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Alabama will receive $5.2 billion over a five year period for state roads and bridges. However, the senator contended that Alabama and other states could have benefited from more funding appropriated toward hard infrastructure. He maintained that the hefty spending package only contained 10% funding for “true infrastructure” and further stated that it was not “even close to an infrastructure bill.”
When asked by Yellowhammer News during a Wednesday press call what Democrats’ true intentions were relating to the spending package, Tuberville indicated that the majority party’s prime concern was climate change rather than infrastructure.
“Here’s the deal – the number one priority for this administration is climate change,” advised Tuberville. “They said that’s our number one priority in this country. That’s not our number one problem. Our number one problem is helping the taxpayers in this country have a better life with the money they send up here to Washington, D.C. We squander money right and left.”
Alabama’s junior senator took note of Democratic leaders’ attendance at the recent United Nations Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which he deemed to be hypocritical due to the air travel they partook in to attend.
“They all flew over in these big jets and they’re screaming about climate change. Let’s help the people in this country. This is one of the biggest hypocrisies I’ve ever seen,” Tuberville declared. “Again, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right – that’s my motto. Again, I’m proud for what we got but it’s not near enough and they’re acting like this is the best thing since sliced bread.”
Tuberville asserted that more work was needed to address the nation’s infrastructure woes and suggested that Democrats had taken a premature victory lap regarding the issue.
“And what this is going to do is [they’re] going to think ‘OK, we’ve appeased everybody across this country with a little bit with this infrastructure, and we’re not going to have to do anything else.’ Yes, we’re going to have to do more. This is not nearly enough to take care of the people in this country in terms of infrastructure,” the senator concluded.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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