Malliotakis Votes to Secure $27B+ for NY Infrastructure & Against Advancing of Socialist Spending Spree

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Today Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) released the following statement regarding her vote for the bipartisan infrastructure package that delivers a minimum of $27 billion of hard infrastructure funding to New York State every year over the next five years.

 "I proudly voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package that will improve the safety and prosperity of communities across America and make the necessary improvements to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century. For far too long, our local, state, and federal leaders have neglected to modernize New York City's aging infrastructure to keep pace with economic and population growth. The funding stream we are providing today will be used by states and cities to modernize roads, highways, bridges, sewer systems, and flood resiliency projects, including right here on Staten Island and in Southern Brooklyn.

 "This funding could be used for new fast ferry lines connecting the city’s five boroughs, upgrading our subway system’s pre-WWII signals, or completing the High-Occupancy Vehicles lane on the Staten Island Expressway. The city could afford to fortify neighborhoods along our coastline with resiliency projects like the East Shore Seawall and expand our sewer systems to deal with the next Superstorm Sandy or Hurricane Ida. Additionally, this funding would reduce the need for the MTA to raid operating funds to pay off debt incurred for capital improvements. Simply put, it’s this type of investment that will not only save city residents’ time and money, but also their properties and lives.

 "While the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure package is an undisputable victory for New York, it's only the first step in the long process of addressing our city and state's infrastructure needs. It is now up to our city and state governments to allocate and prioritize this funding and I will continue to work to ensure they do so appropriately."

 Additionally, in a separate vote, Malliotakis voted against advancing President Biden's socialist spending package:

 "President Biden's reconciliation package, inappropriately named ‘Build Back Better’ by Democrats, is nothing more than an unsustainable socialist wishlist that will bankrupt the economy with increased spending and higher taxation, give government handouts to illegal immigrants, and grow bureaucracy and government control with the largest federal government expansion in 50 years. The day I vote for any budget thrown together in the dead of night by Senator Bernie Sanders and the socialist squad is the day I purchase a one-way flight to Cuba. It is my hope that now that the bipartisan infrastructure bill has passed, we have weakened the socialist’s negotiating hand and perhaps even killed this radical socialist spending spree once and for all.”

 Background on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package that Rep. Malliotakis voted for and the current state of New York City's Infrastructure:

• Estimates suggest our country is currently operating at a nearly $2.6 trillion infrastructure investment gap that will cost $10 trillion in lost GDP by 2039 if unaddressed.
• Many of New York City's water mains, bridges, and subway lines are approaching 100 years old.
• In its 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified that ten percent of New York’s bridges are structurally deficient, and its substandard roads cost drivers $625 a year. 
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates the bipartisan infrastructure package will create 20 million jobs, repair 45,000 structurally deficient bridges, deliver clean drinking water to 10 million families, connect 14 million Americans to reliable, high-speed internet and upgrade our country’s energy grid.
• The bipartisan infrastructure package delivers a minimum of $27 billion to New York State for local infrastructure projects, including:
• $11.6 billion for highways.
• $9.8 billion to upgrade public transportation like the New York City subway system.
• $2.6 billion for waterways & coastal resiliency projects like the East Shore Seawall.
• $1.9 billion to retrofit bridges.
• $1 billion investment for other projects including broadband internet, airports, and protection against cyber-attacks.

 Below are the worst provisions included in Biden's Socialist Spending Package that Malliotakis opposes:

• Perpetuates labor shortage: This bill continues welfare benefits without work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents at a time where there are 10.4 million job openings—more openings than there are people looking for work.
• Violates Americans’ financial privacy: This bill gives an $80 billion slush fund to the IRS to hire an 87,000 agent army that would be used to carry out the Biden administration’s plan to review every account with more than $10,000 worth of transactions in a year. The plan includes hiring 5,000 new armed criminal agents.
• Pushes Green New Deal in our universities: Democrats included a $10 billion “environmental justice” higher education credit program to indoctrinate college students and advance Green New Deal policies.
• Includes new incentives for illegal immigration: Unde this bill, illegal immigrants would be eligible for federal student aid and the enhanced child tax credit.
• Obamacare Propaganda: The bill would require HHS to advertise the expanded Obamacare tax credits in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid directly to “racial and sexual minorities,” among others, and claims that they are “hard-to-reach.”
• Subjects small business to reckless tax penalties: The bill subjects small businesses with over $600 in transactions to backup tax withholding requirements if they fail to comply with IRS regulations
• Imposes crushing taxes on small businesses: This bill will hammer small businesses that file as individual tax earners with Obamacare’s 3.8% tax on net investment income.
• Increases out-of-pocket costs for those who rely on prescription drugs: The bill will repeal the Trump era Rebate Rule which passes through rebates directly to consumers at the point of sale.
• Makes it easier for the IRS to target taxpayers: The bill would make it easier for the IRS to issue penalties against taxpayers by removing the requirement that each penalty assessment be approved by a supervisor. Instead, the bill would merely require supervisors to provide quarterly reports on whether IRS employees are following the proper guidelines and requirements.
• Drives up costs on Americans’ utility bills: This bill includes a tax on natural gas eventually up to $1,500 per ton that could cost the American economy up to $9.1 billion, 90,000 Americans their jobs, and increase utility bills.
• Increases taxes on Americans at every income level: The bill’s trillions of dollars in tax hikes will be felt by those making under $400,000 per year, contrary to what the White House says.
• Includes legislative hull for Biden’s vaccine mandate: Increases OSHA penalties on businesses that fail to implement the mandate up to $700,000 per violation and includes nearly a billion dollars in funding for the Department of Labor to increase enforcement of these penalties.
• Lowers wages for working families and moves jobs overseas: The 15% minimum tax on book income is a double tax on investment. This would raise taxes on American companies by hundreds of billions of dollars, kill 25,000 jobs, and reduce wages by 0.1%, all in the name of complying with Biden’s desire to appease global elites through a global minimum tax.
• Increases energy dependence on OPEC, Russia, and China: The bill includes mineral and energy withdrawals on federal lands and overturns pro
• provisions included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that authorized energy production in the Arctic that will result in 130,000 Americans losing their jobs and $440 billion in lost federal revenue.
• Furthers radical abortion agenda: The bill would also further Democrats’ radical pro-abortion agenda by allowing taxpayer money to fund elective abortions, subsidizing plans that cover them, and creating new ways taxpayer money could be spent on pro-abortion facilities.

Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act Myth v Fact