Group questions infrastructure bill as Secretary Buttigieg tours Illinois

[July 17, 2021]  By Kevin Bessler

(The Center Square) – A political watchdog group is calling the existing infrastructure proposal wasteful in the wake of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s tour of Illinois.

The secretary toured projects Friday he says will benefit from President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion dollar American jobs plan.

The bipartisan infrastructure framework is promoted as making transformational and historic investments to the nation’s infrastructure, including transportation, clean water and power, and broadband.

“Meeting Joe Biden’s challenge providing for our generation the resources so that we can build America back better,” said Senator Dick Durbin at a Friday news conference.

Jason Heffley, Illinois director of Americans for Prosperity, has a question for Buttigieg.

“Why only 5% of the reported spending in the infrastructure bill is actually on roads and bridges and things we often think of as traditional infrastructure?” Heffley said.

Heffley said more than 1 million letters have been sent to lawmakers calling on them to end “Washington Waste”.

Lawmakers are still working on a massive infrastructure package and are talking about a vote next week, but offer no details.

“What we have again in Washington, which the voters are sick and tired of across the country and in the state of Illinois particularly, we have to pass the bill to know what's in it type of thing again,” Heffley said.

Senate Democrats are reportedly hurrying to finalize an infrastructure spending bill that they can pass on party lines with spending measures that weren’t included in a deal struck with Republicans.

Heffley said Illinois’ roads and bridges, ranked among the worst in the country, were supposed to be addressed when the gas tax was doubled a couple of years ago.

“As everyone goes to the pump this weekend and pays these outrageous prices for gas, they should remember that we are already paying infrastructure that Governor Pritzker proposed,” Heffley said. “How many times do Illinoisans need to pay for infrastructure?”