Jim Banks on 'Infrastructure' Bill: 'Essentially a Green New Deal Lite'

Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) slammed the so-called “infrastructure” bill in a memo released on Twitter, calling the bill “essentially a Green New Deal Lite.”

Banks, in his memo, explained that the so-called “infrastructure” bill is not just for infrastructure. He wrote that according to Club for Growth analysis, “Only $110 billion of the so-called $1 trillion-plus bipartisan infrastructure package goes toward road, bridges and other major projects that the American people generally consider “infrastructure.”

The remaining balance of the $1.2 trillion bills is are “Green New Deal provisions.”

With this said, Banks’ memo indicates that the bill would build on the Green New Deal’s plan to try to replace all air travel with trains. He wrote that the bill also “Includes $66 billion to help fulfill [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s] vision for massive expansions of Amtrak and other rail while explicitly eliminating tax- payer accountability from Amtrak’s mission.”

The memo states that the bill would fix “racism” in the highway system and give the “woke” regulators oversight on broadband expansion. For highways, part of the bill earmarks $110 billion to rebuild the roads and bridges across the country in addition to fixing the “racism physically built into some of our highways,” which Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has previously described.

Additionally, giving oversight to the “woke” regulators to “decide where and when broadband expansion occurs and mandates regulators not use federal funds in a way that discriminates based on ‘gender identity,’ which he said is described by the American Principles Project.

Banks, in his memo, also mentioned that the so-called “infrastructure” bill plays favorites with the people in Democrat-led versus Republican-led cities and helps push the left’s social mission like using the word “equity” 64 times in the bill. He noted that it also is far too long to comprehend for anyone because the average reader would have to spend 49 hours to read the whole thing, while it also includes “pay-fors won’t pay for,” and no one is really able to know how much the whole bill will cost over time.

Lastly, as Banks points out, the bill is a “trojan horse” wishlist for the most radical parts of the Democrat party, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Joe Biden. Banks wrote, “No one should support something that will serve as a trojan horse for the Democrats’ reconciliation package, which the White House wants to use to pass massive amnesty.”  Pelosi is trying to force the Senate’s hand with passing reconciliation.