President Joe Biden has made expanding broadband one of the top goals of his administration. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) has repeatedly expressed his commitment to rural broadband expansion, yet he voted against the President’s infrastructure bill that contains broadband funding. The President recently chastised Tuberville for being inconsistent.
Sen. Tuberville tweeted that broadband was a vital success for the rural communities of Alabama.
President Biden mocking then mocked Sen. Tuberville in a retweet that quipped, “See you at the groundbreaking.”
On Wednesday, Tuberville responded to Biden’s attack in a lengthy statement.
Tuberville said in a statement, “I’ve said all along I’d be for a bill that invests every penny of every dollar in improvements to our roads, bridges, waterways, and rural broadband. Unfortunately, Democrats have missed an opportunity to deliver the bill that the American people truly need. Instead, the final legislation is loaded with giveaways to big cities and pet projects that have little to do with real infrastructure. Worse, we’re using fuzzy math and IOUs to hide the real cost of this massive legislation. I can’t vote for a bill that fails to give Alabama a fair slice of the pie while also saddling Alabama taxpayers with even more debt.”
To support Tuberville’s positions, his office released arguments against the bill:
- The Biden Infrastructure bill was more than 1,000 pages long.
- Broadband spending was only 4 percent of the spending in the bill.
- Only 10 percent of the money goes to roads and bridges.
- Much of the money went to Pete Buttigieg or to the Climate Crazies at the Department of Energy, including:
- $39.2 billion for public transit
- $7.5 billion for low-emission school buses and ferries
- $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging
- $37.5 billion in green energy grants at the Department of Energy
- $3.8 billion for carbon capture and storage
- The bill added $256 billion to the deficit—which means it also added to Bidenflation.
Tuberville said that he opposed the bill in part because it didn’t do enough for rural broadband; while funding too many liberal priorities that Tuberville opposed.
Tuberville said that broadband funding should be based on merit, not on politics. Tuberville accused Biden and his allies of politicizing broadband.
Tuberville said that broadband remains one of Tuberville’s top 5 priorities for the upcoming farm bill, where he is the top Republican on the relevant subcommittee for the Agriculture Committee. The coach also recently gave a floor speech on this issue.
Sen. Tuberville’s office said that there is no contradiction between voting against a massive bill like the stimulus or BIF and supporting individual provisions of it, or between voting against such massive legislation and believing that Alabama deserves a fair share of existing funding, just like every other state does.
Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020 after a lengthy career as a teacher, coach, and broadcaster. Before his run for the Senate, Tuberville was best known for his tenure as the head football coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech, and Cincinnati, and often goes by the title of Coach.
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