House Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) told Breitbart News during a press conference Tuesday that Republicans should oppose the “fake” $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Democrat leadership said that the House will vote on the $1.2 trillion so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill, otherwise known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, on September 27. The bill, which faced significant opposition from Senate conservatives, passed with the help of 19 Senate Republicans in August.
Axios reported Monday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) might rely on House moderate Republicans to pass the legislation, as many progressive Democrats may oppose the bill. Politico reported that House Republican leadership expects fewer than a dozen House Republicans to vote for the bill. Many House GOP moderates could likely vote against the bill, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) oppose it.
A House GOP leadership aide told Breitbart News that the only Republicans that could potentially support the bill would be moderates, but that would largely depend on whether the larger $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill passes. The aide said many GOP moderates would not vote for this bill if the reconciliation bill passes.
A senior House GOP aide told Breitbart News that it remains doubtful Democrats have the votes to pass it within their own party, which could likely lead to the bill’s demise. The aide said:
The vote on BIF [bipartisan infrastructure bill] is another classic case of ‘Dems in Disarray.’ The bottom line is that this is a bad bill for America, and Democrats are in complete and utter chaos right now. They are operating under the ‘no plan’ plan, and they haven’t proven they even have the votes on their side to get it across the finish line. The House could see the BIF sink like the Titanic.
During a press conference Tuesday, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman, told Breitbart News that having Republicans vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill would only help Democrats ahead of the contentious 2022 midterm elections. He predicted that a “single-digit” number of House Republicans would vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Banks described the bill as a “fake infrastructure deal” and contended Republicans largely oppose the bill.
Banks pointed Breitbart News to an Axios article in which Democrat National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said if Democrats pass their infrastructure bills, they could say, “It’s very simple. Two words: Democrats deliver.”
The RSC has long messaged against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, highlighting how it spends only $110 billion of its $1.2 trillion on infrastructure, advances the climate change agenda, and pushes Critical Race Theory (CRT):
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the bill would add $256 billion to the deficit, and the Penn-Wharton Budget Model said the bill would add no “significant” level of economic growth.
The bipartisan infrastructure would also advance leftist priorities by:
- Defines “gender identity” as a protected class.
- Doles out “digital equity” grants partly based on racial or ethnic minority status.
- State-mandated carbon reduction program
- Contains funding for “zero-emission vehicles”
- Addresses “over-the-road bus tolling equity”
- Contains the word “equity” 64 times
- Provides roughly $2.5 billion to help the U.S. government expand the border processing stations used by migrants from poor Central American nations and other regions around the world.
Notably, the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill does not contain any sizable conservative victories.
The legislation calls for a study to review the potential impact of revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, even though it does not restore the job-creating project. The bill also has billions of dollars for border crossings and zero dollars for a border wall.
During the press conference, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said that the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill and the bipartisan infrastructure bill are inherently linked because President Joe Biden and a group of Senate Republicans and Democrats struck a deal to craft the bipartisan bill.
Donalds said:
You can’t decouple these two bills. The only reason this infrastructure bill even exists is because the deal that was cut in the White House and in the Senate, and frankly, amongst the House majority was that it’s coupled with this $3.5 trillion budget bill, so they’re together, they’re never separate because y’all know like we know if the infrastructure bill dies, the budget rec[conciliation bill] dies and vice versa.
He added, “We’re being told this is bipartisan because we had four Republicans and four Democrat senators negotiate with the White House.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.