Republicans Keep Taking Credit For Local Broadband Projects Funded By Federal Bills They Voted Against

There's an historic $50 billion in broadband subsidies currently heading to the states courtesy of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). There are plenty of potential hiccups on stuff likemappingthat could screw things up, but, any way you slice it, this money should still have an amazing, positive impact on affordable broadband expansion in the U.S..

Amusingly though, the same Republicans who vehemently opposed and voted against both bills are now happily taking credit for the benefits among their constituents. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, for example, has repeatedly tried to take credit for state broadband efforts funded by money he voted against:

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis keeps crowing about Florida's broadband investments made possible via Florida's Broadband Opportunity Program." A significant chunk of those funds ($400 million, page 5) were only made possible via the federal ARPA bill DeSantis and state senators opposed, but good luck finding any mention of that instate press releaseson the subject.

In Montana, Republican Governor GregGianforte has also repeatedlyissued press releaseslauding broadband subsidies doled out by the state, without mentioning that Montana's ConnectMT program is primarily going to be built on the back of ARPA and IIJA funds.

In Texas, Republican Senator John Cornyn has also lauded the $3.3 billion in broadband funds headed to his state (more than any other state in the country) thanks to an infrastructure bill he voted against:

In West Virginia last month, Republican West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito helped celebrate the deployment of a new $4 million fiber network that's bringing access to long neglected communities:

This is so essential and so important to this region," Capito told attendees. I just want to say congratulations. It's not going to be easy, but I can't wait until we can stop talking about how we need to connect us all, you know. Because that will mean that we're all connected."

Except Capito voted against the federal ARPA funding (and a $1.7 million grant doled out to Woodlands Development Group) that laid the initial groundwork for the entire project. On the plus side, Capito did vote in favor of the infrastructure bill, though that funding hasn't yet reached local projects yet.

In most states, Republicans are basically just taking the federal broadband funding they voted against, and infusing it into state-level programs with entirely new names. That the money came from the federal level isn't even mentioned, much less that Republicans fought against it.

Normally, a functional, healthy local press would inform locals that Republican leaders are voting against projects that make their life better, then falsely taking credit for it on the other end. But given we've largely eviscerated what's left of local news, leaving communities served" by right wing propaganda mills like Sinclair Broadcasting, that's almost certainly not happening with any consistency.