PA State Sen Mastriano Does It Again

And by "it" I mean he's bragging about accomplishing something that, had the GOP in Congress had their way, would never have been funded.

Take a look.

We start at Doug's "Government Official" FB page where he posted this:

 

If you were you to click on the link, you'd make it here. This is the first sentence of the piece:

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano on Friday announced that nearly $735,000 in funding has been awarded for a pedestrian and bicycle route project in the Franklin County borough of Chambersburg.

And this is the last:

Funding for the project is provided through the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside, Mastriano said. 

Ok. So what's the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside? 

Well, let's go to PennDOT and see:

The federal Transpo​rtation Alternatives Set-Aside (TASA) provides funding for projects and activities defined as transportation alternatives, including on- and off-road pedestrian and bicycle facilities, infrastructure projects for improving non-driver access to public transportation and enhanced mobility, community improvement activities, and environmental mitigation, trails that serve a transportation purpose, and safe routes to school projects.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), continues to fund the TA Set-Aside through 2026. 

Ok, so now let's take a look at that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

 

It was introduced as HR 3684 and sponsored by Oregon Democrat Pete Defazio in June of 2021. It made it out of the house with two GOP votes - otherwise all the Democrats voted for it and all the other Republicans voted against. In the Senate it passed (with an amendment) with only 30 GOP votes.  The House voted on the amended bill with only 13 GOP votes.

 

Had the GOP gotten its way on this, there'd be no bill. Plain and simple. And with no bill, there'd be no funding to the TASA. And with no funding to the TASA, PA State Sen Doug Mastriano would not have been able to make his announcement regarding the bike and pedestrian route project.

Plain and simple.  If he were an honest man, Doug Mastriano would be thanking US House and Senate Democrats (and President Joe Biden) for making this all possible.