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Sen. Ted Cruz has problems with signage advertising projects funded by the 2021 infrastructure law.
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Construction sites in the US note that the projects were made possible by the law signed by Biden.
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“These displays are nothing more than campaign signs,” argues Cruz.
In the United States, several construction sites are plastered with signs that read: “Project funded by President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.”
For many people, it is an innocuous notation of the thousands of projects financed by the vast $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed the law into law in 2021 and was supported by Democrats and a considerable contingent of Republicans.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz was not one of them.
Cruz is now pushing for a government investigation to learn whether the Biden administration ran afoul of the Hatch Act by using taxpayer funds to promote the law’s impact, according to Politico.
In a letter obtained by Politico, Cruz argues that the Biden administration has “highly politicized” the infrastructure law, pointing to signs that explicitly state that projects were enabled by the legislation and include the president’s name.
Cruz, in the letter, then argues that Biden “unilaterally renamed” the bipartisan infrastructure law as “President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act,” which passed the House by a vote of 228-206 and the Senate by a vote of 69-30.
“I am writing to refer you for investigation as a possible violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law that broadly prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars for campaign activities,” Cruz said in the letter addressed to the Office of Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. “Congress, not President Biden, wrote [the infrastructure law]and he did not do it to help the president’s re-election campaign.”
“These displays are nothing more than campaign signs, courtesy of the American taxpayer,” the senator added, according to Politico.
cross vehemently opposed the law and voted against its approval.
White House spokeswoman Robyn Patterson told Politico in a statement that the project’s signs “promote transparency and inform taxpayers how federal dollars are being spent.”
“If Senator Cruz had been as concerned about Texas children getting clean water as he was about signs, he could have voted for the Infrastructure Act and sent $31 billion to address essential infrastructure needs across the Texas,” the statement added.
According to Politico, Cruz also said the “Investing in America” logo was “purposely designed to look like the Biden-Harris campaign logo.”
The infrastructure law – by far Biden’s most notable domestic achievement – is being praised by the president himself and Democratic candidates on the campaign trail as one of his greatest legislative victories.
The law provided federal funding for long-awaited improvements to bridges and tunnels, highways and rail infrastructure, among other projects.
Biden intends to differentiate himself from former President Donald Trump on this issue. In 2016, Trump ran to enact a broad infrastructure planbut during his tenure in the White House, he never proposed a workable bill to lawmakers.
Still, Biden has hit a roadblock on this issue ahead of the November elections, as some voters remain skeptical about the law’s effectiveness — though a significant chunk don’t give him much credit for it.
A Politico-Morning Consult poll conducted in April showed that 40% of registered voters gave Biden the lead over infrastructure upgrades and job creation, while 37% of respondents gave Trump the advantage. And in the seven battleground statesBiden’s lead over Trump on this issue was just six points (42% to 36%).
Read the original article at Business Insider
