Malliotakis: A win-win: Delivering infrastructure while dealing a blow to Socialist Squad

Last Tuesday, Americans from one side of the country to the other, elected Republicans to state and local office, sending Joe Biden and the Democrats a message that we are not, and will never be, a socialist nation. Because this message was so clear, even Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress could not ignore it.

Biden and Pelosi abandoned their scheme to tie a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure, that was first proposed by President Trump five years ago, to their $3.5 trillion socialist reconciliation plan. As a result, New York City and the rest of our country will benefit from a desperately needed investment in our roads, bridges, ports, sewers, mass transit and coastal resiliency projects—including funding for Staten Island’s East Shore Sea Wall and the Brooklyn shoreline.

Biden and his socialist supporters on Capitol Hill, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, have lost the political capital and leverage they need to raise taxes, have the IRS invade our privacy, expand the welfare state, provide taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants, and usher in the Green New Deal using the reconciliation process. That’s why AOC and her Socialist Squad voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

While our country will be better off for both passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill and thwarting the socialist wish list, a lack of information and fake news has clouded the discussion. First, I voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and that legislation only. I voted against a measure that would have advanced the socialists’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation plan and I will fight like hell to prevent that from ever becoming law.

Equally frustrating is the misinformation surrounding the infrastructure bill I supported. Every single dollar in that legislation funds infrastructure improvements, with half a trillion over five years dedicated to repairing our nation’s deteriorating hard infrastructure and the balance to other infrastructure investments like broadband and public transit.

Just like President Trump’s plan that I supported and pledged to pass when I was running for Congress, this will provide a minimum of $100 billion over five years that will benefit New Yorkers. From funding that could be used for expanded fast ferry service for Staten Island, upgrading NYC’s subway system’s pre-WWII signals and making improvements to the Staten Island Expressway to alleviate traffic congestion.

With continuing delays in the construction of the East Shore Seawall, the infrastructure bill will provide the Army Corps of Engineers with the resources needed to complete this project once and for all. It will also modernize our sewer system to deal with the next Superstorm Sandy or Hurricane Ida. As a State Assemblywoman representing Staten Island during Sandy and our recovery, this has been a top priority for both me and those I’ve been privileged to serve for nearly a decade.

From President Dwight Eisenhower to President Donald Trump, investing in America’s infrastructure has long been a fundamental priority of the Republican Party. In fact, Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Act and the Interstate Highway System it created reshaped our country and enabled the United States to win the Cold War.

Three decades later, President Reagan renewed that commitment by reminding us that “the bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost.” And President Trump proposed spending $1 trillion to make America’s infrastructure “second to none” so we could remain the world’s largest economy. As your voice in the House of Representatives, I will never allow the United States to fall behind China.

From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to blue-collar union employees on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn, Americans support investing in our critical infrastructure to strengthen our economy, create good-paying new jobs and keep our homes and families safe.

I am proud to have fulfilled my campaign promise to pass a comprehensive infrastructure investment that benefits my constituents in New York City and struck a major blow against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and the socialists in Congress who have maneuvered for months to tie together the passage of the infrastructure bill and their $3.5 trillion socialist wish-list.

As a freshman member of Congress, I have spent the last 10 months fighting for my constituents in Washington, D.C. While the bipartisan infrastructure bill has been five years in the making, it took one extraordinary election day and the unmistakable message is sent to those in power to get it done.

This was a victory for the American people. Now, I look forward to working with my city and state colleagues, our new borough president, and local business and civic groups to collectively push for the projects we desperately need.