Brunswick Beacon, 02.27.25
In 2021, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest investment in transportation infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System began construction in the 1950s.
NC’s senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis helped deliver an overwhelming 69-30 victory. Tillis praised the law (tillis.senate.gov/infrastructure), which I urge you to read. Tillis explained that “the bill is paid for in a responsible way without raising taxes, and will generate billions in economic growth for decades to come. The bill is funded in part by using unspent unemployment insurance and unspent COVID-19 recovery funding.”
Tillis itemized over $11 billion in benefits NC receives: $7.2B to rebuild roads and highways, including more than 3,000 miles of highways in “poor condition;” $1.5B to provide broadband services to more than 400,000 North Carolinians without access; $911M to build and improve public transit systems across NC; $458M for airport construction and improvements; $457M for bridge construction and repair; $440M to provide NC families with safe and clean drinking water; and $144.2M to protect NC from hurricane and storm damage.
Tillis even itemized the benefits for each county. Brunswick County gets $86,365,920 for highway construction, airport expansion, bridge replacement, and highway safety improvements. We could lose all those benefits because of Trump’s Executive Order freezing “all Federal financial assistance.”
NC’s Attorney General, Democrat Jeff Jackson, said, “This sudden freeze in federal funding is so sweeping that it could cause widespread and immediate harm across our state — delaying disaster recovery in our western counties, undercutting law enforcement, and affecting children and veterans. It violates constitutional power over federal spending, and I’m taking legal action to stop it.”
Jackson’s suit, joined by 22 other Democratic attorneys general, won a federal court injunction ordering Trump to lift his freeze, but Trump is defying the order!
Tillis acknowledges that Trump’s freeze “runs afoul of the Constitution.” Call Tillis’ office at (202) 224-6342 and demand he do something about it.
Linda McConnell Baker
Leland
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