SC representatives should join GOP’s Graham, vote yes on $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill

Infrastructure, perhaps more than any service government oversees, affects all of us.

“Republicans, democrats, libertarians, vegetarians, we’re all on the road and we’re sitting on the road way too long,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday during a roundtable in Charleston on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill set to go before the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Graham, a former city attorney, also understands that all politics is local and it is roads and bridges, as well as electricity, water and internet service, that his constituents need and use everyday.

It is local elected officials who hear from residents about the potholes that damage their cars or the bridge closure that forces them to travel out of their way.

During the roundtable with some of those local leaders, Graham joked that “I made a promise to myself never to run for city council or county council because it’s too hard. People expect you to do stuff all the time. At my job, people are surprised if we ever do anything. It’s actually a pretty good deal.”

He added, “We’re not doing a whole lot in Washington that’s constructive, but maybe this bill might be.”

He’s not wrong about the surprise part.

According to the Pew Research Center, trust in government is low, but a significant majority of Americans still expect the federal government to provide clean air and water and high-quality K-12 education for all Americans. The center’s survey also found “More modest majorities say it is the government’s responsibility to provide health insurance (64%), adequate income in retirement (58%) and an adequate standard of living (56%).”

He’s also right that passage of the infrastructure bill is an opportunity for the legislative branch of government to do something constructive.

Graham was among 19 republican senators who voted for it on Aug. 10. His vote led several county GOP organizations to censure Graham for betraying conservative values, but Graham said Monday that if the bill doesn’t pass in the House of Representatives that “it will be heartbreaking because the need is overwhelming.”

He’s not wrong there, either.

The legislation includes $4.6 billion in highway funding for the Palmetto State along with $274 million in bridge replacement and rehabilitation funding, and $70 million to assist in the deployment of electric vehicles and charging stations over the next five years.

If you’ve driven lately or had trouble connecting to the internet in certain parts of the state, you know our infrastructure needs the money.

Graham noted that the future of South Carolina, home to major automobile manufacturers like BMW and Volvo, is also dependent on making improvements, including electric vehicle charging stations, now to ready the state for what’s next.

Graham, first elected to the Senate in 2002, also knows that at some point democrats and republicans have to go beyond ideological differences to do what’s best for their communities.

“If you want your port deepened, you better help somebody else deepen theirs,” Graham said.

GOP Sen. Tim Scott did not join Graham in supporting the infrastructure bill in August, but this week’s vote is a chance for South Carolina’s seven representatives to do what’s best for the state, its people and its economy.

We urge them to vote yes on the infrastructure bill.

This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 2:10 PM with the headline "SC representatives should join GOP’s Graham, vote yes on $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill."