Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure deal that will reallocate $1 billion to resume construction of the wall at the southern border.
The potential addition to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would strip the money from grants awarded to the Northeast Corridor Amtrak and apply those funds to border wall construction.
“The American people should not be forced to foot the bill for Joe Biden’s pet project,” said Senator Blackburn. “If Joe Biden truly cared about infrastructure, he would build the wall at our southern border. Instead, Biden spent hundreds of millions of dollars to not build a wall and allow illegal aliens to flood into our country.”
Blackburn has remained critical of the proposed legislation. Specifically, she argues that the deal is not completely paid for and would require new spending.
“So we are asking our colleagues: how is this infrastructure spending bill being paid for? We still don’t know. We still don’t have a score on this legislation from the Congressional Budget Office. Let’s not forget, this is just the first step in the Democrats’ plan to pass their $5.5 trillion tax and spend liberal wish list. We support infrastructure, but it has to be paid for. This proposal isn’t it,” she said in a joint statement with a host of other Republican Senators.
Former President Donald Trump has also slammed the ongoing, bipartisan infrastructure negotiations and urged Republicans to reject the proposal.
“Senate Republicans are being absolutely savaged by Democrats on the so-called “bipartisan” infrastructure bill. Mitch McConnell and his small group of RINOs wants nothing more than to get a deal done at any cost to prove that he can work with the Radical Left Democrats,” Trump said in a statement.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
