Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Archives

‘Clear Violation of the Law’: Biden’s Multi-Billion Dollar Broadband Plan Defies Congressional Mandate, Experts Say

April 22, 2024 Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The Biden administration’s program to expand access to broadband internet may run afoul of the law that created it, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the Department of Commerce, is responsible for allocating $42.5 billion in funds intended to bolster the United States’ broadband internet infrastructure through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) program. The agency, in a move to expand high-speed internet access to low-income communities, has been attempting to force states to adopt price controls for broadband services provided through the new projects, a strategy experts say could be illegal.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Hiring Dozens of Workers for Orphan Well Plugging Project

March 2, 2024March 1, 2024 The Center Square

Pennsylvania will receive hundreds of millions of dollars to plug defunct oil and gas wells that may pose health and environmental threats.

And now, the state’s existing program is getting more scrutiny for how it prioritizes projects and uses that money.

Commentary: The Left’s War on Mobility Is Making the Holidays Miserable, But It Has Far More Sinister Motives

December 19, 2023 Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Never before has so much ‘infrastructure’ been funded and so little built.

Unless, that is, you label Pete Buttegieg’s ‘paternity’ leave as ‘human infrastructure.’ Which, by the way, is exactly what the Biden administration did with its trillion dollar infrastructure boondoggle in 2021.

Biden Energy Department Ill-Prepared to Combat Fraud as it Spends Billions on Infrastructure

November 27, 2023 Just the News

The U.S. Energy Department faces major management challenges ranging from hacking vulnerabilities to foreign espionage and could create “massive new risks to the taxpayer” as it spends tens of billions of dollars in new spending from President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure initiative, the agency’s internal watchdog warns.

The Office of Inspector General offered a stark assessment of the department under Secretary Jennifer Granholm, pointedly warning losses from fraud in the current infrastructure spending could mirror that seen during the COVID pandemic, where taxpayers now lost an estimated $200 billion government wide.

Pennsylvania House Committee Advances Legislation Favoring Certain Contractors; GOP Flags Alleged Notice Violation

June 23, 2023June 22, 2023 Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania House of Representatives panel on Thursday passed bills to favor apprenticeship-trained labor and pay prevailing wages in state contracting in a process Republicans blasted as illegitimate.

The House Labor and Industry Committee reported both bills to the full chamber, with all 12 Democrats supportive and all nine Republicans opposed.

Feds Doling Out $2.3 Billion to ‘Expand and Modernize’ Intercity Passenger Rail

December 12, 2022December 11, 2022 The Center Square

The federal government is looking to dole out nearly $2.3 billion to “expand and modernize” intercity passenger rail across the country.

But a leading transportation analyst says that Amtrak, the nation’s passenger railroad, doesn’t have any plans to break even.

Amid Supply-Chain Logjams, Infrastructure Bill Allocates $250M to Target Truck Emissions at Ports

November 15, 2021November 14, 2021 Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

This week’s Golden Horseshoe is awarded to the Biden Administration and members of Congress who voted for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes $250 million for reducing truck emissions at port facilities, which have been crippled by record-breaking cargo backlogs for months.

Critics have attributed the bottlenecks to draconian California emissions standards that exclude up to half the nation’s truckers from transporting shipping containers to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s two busiest, which together account for close to one third of total U.S. shipping cargo volume.

Biden’s Commerce Secretary Is Trying to Shield a $42 Billion Broadband Funding Program from Public Eyes

November 4, 2021November 3, 2021 Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo requested the inclusion of a provision in the bipartisan infrastructure bill shielding a $42 billion broadband funding program from public scrutiny, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion piece of legislation that passed the Senate in August with significant bipartisan support and currently awaits a vote in the House, sets aside $42 billion in broadband deployment grants to be given to states and administered through guidelines issued by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the Commerce Department.