Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Thursday night halted a move by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to expedite advancement of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
The spending package is not dead yet, but it will not have the accelerated path to passage it would have enjoyed had all 100 senators consented to quickly moving through over a dozen amendment votes Thursday evening and sending the bill to the House of Representatives.
In a statement issued early Friday morning, Hagerty said a major reason he refused to consent was an analysis published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) earlier that day that determined the legislation lacked full funding. According to the CBO’s projections, the infrastructure measure in its current form would enlarge the national deficit by $256 billion. The bill contains $110 billion for roads and bridges, $73 billion for electric-grid improvements, $65 billion for expanded broadband access, $55 billion for drinking-water cleanliness, and $7.5 billion for electric-vehicle charging among other expenditures.
Speaking on Fox Business News earlier on Thursday, Hagerty said that while some leftists in the House of Representatives hope to sink the Senate infrastructure legislation because they would prefer an even larger version, the Senate package is fiscally irresponsible as it is.
“I can tell you this: Washington math can be very funny; it can be very perplexing,” the senator told Fox Business host Elizabeth MacDonald. “I’ve been a businessman all my life and it’s hard to understand, but I can understand this: It’s going to be inflationary and it’s going to add to the debt and the deficit that our children and grandchildren are going to continue to bear.”
Prior to Thursday’s CBO analysis, many of the legislation’s supporters such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO contended that the bill had funding sources sufficient to cover its full cost. Those sources include $205 billion in repurposed COVID-relief money, $53 billion from some states repaying unused federal unemployment insurance money and, controversially, $56 billion in revenue from economic growth predicted to result from the infrastructure projects to be funded by the bill.
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Bradley Vasoli is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Ever wonder how to spell POLITICAL THEATER? B-I-L-L H-, I think you get the idea!
I can almost guarantee that every other RINO Senator, of which both Hagerty AND Blackburn are members, will be pulling a similar “breaking news” press release. All to give themselves “cover” for when they “stick the knife” into We the People’s backs. Kind of like they both did on January 6th, when they were supposed to stand up for our President and fair and transparent elections, and didn’t!
The bill is bad fir the average commuter on oage 508 you have to pay to drive your own car. Check it out americans and Senators pay to drive is hiden in this 8,000 page monster.
God damn traitor. You want your fellow Tennesseans to starve!
You would be better served moving to NY or Calif.
thank you senator
What is wrong with proving something is funded?
Schumer does not care!
Thank you Senator Hagerty for standing up for Tennesseans! Inflation is here and going to get much worse! Why don’t you publicly for RINO/WARMONGER Mitch McConnell to step down as leader? McConnell is not i n touch with Tennesseans or the Trump base! Please talk with weak Marsha about her support for McConnell and Turning her back and promise on Tennesseans to support the voter integrity act with Senator Cruz! Be strong Hagerty for Tennesseans, please vote against anything that adds more debt to our deficit! Marsha needs help please teach her the value of of keeping her promises to Tennesseans!
Many thanks and deep gratitude to Senator Hagerty!!!