GOP Rep. Reveals Why She Voted For Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Amid Backlash

Republican New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis revealed on Tuesday her reasoning for voting in favor of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.

Thirteen House Republicans voted in support of the $1.75 trillion infrastructure bill that passed the House late Friday with a 228-206 vote. The legislation is intended to fund approximately $1.2 trillion over the next decade towards improving roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and rural broadband access.

Malliotakis called the bill “cover to cover infrastructure,” since nearly $350 billion intends to fund a wide range of infrastructure across the country and another $550 billion will potentially go toward ports, seawalls, sewer systems, and subway signals that have deteriorated and have become outdated.

“For an aging city like New York City, this bill was incredibly important and the reality is that this is the type of investment that people actually pay taxes for,” the New York representative told Fox News’ Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer. “Those basic infrastructure needs that you expect from government but have been neglected for decades.”

“At the end of the you don’t against a bill simply because you want to stick it to the other side. You vote for a bill because it’s the right thing to do for your constituents.” @RepMalliotakis explains why she voted for President Biden’s infrastructure package pic.twitter.com/wQA0qB8hp7

— America’s Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) November 9, 2021

Six Democrats in total including Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, crossed their party lines by voting against the bill over it being passed separately from Biden’s Build Back Better Plan. (RELATED: Here Are The 13 House Republicans Who Voted For Biden’s Infrastructure Bill)

Malliotakis said voting in favor of the bill “took away the leverage from the socialist squad” since criticism will now be drawn to the far left’s agenda implemented in the $1.7 trillion social spending bill that includes “amnesty” for illegal immigrants and a slash fund for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents. She said the progressives are the “losers” as Republicans and moderate Democrats vow to prevent their agendas from passing.

She argued that if the bill had failed to pass, Ocasio-Cortez and the left-wing of the Democrats would have gained leverage since the Democrats would have had to cave in to their agenda to successfully pass legislation.

Malliotakis responded to the House Republicans’ deleted Nov. 6 tweet that stated that supporting the bill is “a vote for [the Democrats’] socialist agenda” saying they misinterpreted the bill for the spending bill that she said all Republicans oppose.

Despite supporting his infrastructure plan, Malliotakis remained critical of the president for reforming Trump’s immigration policies, the Afghanistan withdrawal and inflation. She said voting in favor of the bill was “the right thing to do” for her constituents.

“You don’t vote against a bill simply because you want to stick it to the other side, you vote for a bill because it is the right thing to do for your constituents,” she said. “And everyone I think should be looking at it from that perspective.”

She also credited former President Donald Trump for his previous push to invest in the country’s failing infrastructure with reference to his plan to pass an approximate $1.5 trillion to fund roads, bridges and highways. The plan ceased to pass Congress.

The former president criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday for supporting the bill that passed the Senate in August.