Iowa governor takes credit for American Rescue Plan funding she rallied against

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds took credit a $100 million investment in the state’s water infrastructure Wednesday that comes from federal funds she spoke out against. It’s far from the first time Reynolds has done so.

The investments into the Iowa Water Infrastructure fund and the Iowa Conservation Infrastructure Project are both funded by federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in March. Part of ARPA’s $1.9 trillion spending package involved giving states funds to make “necessary investments” in local drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

“…We remain committed to improving Iowa’s water quality and providing these historic investments to local communities, landowners and organizations that aim to protect, preserve and restore Iowa’s water resources,” Reynolds said in a press release touting the project.

But Reynolds was vocally opposed to ARPA throughout the time it went through the legislative system. She joined a list of 21 mostly Republican state governors that opposed the bill in February. Her main complaints were that ARPA allocated resources according to state unemployment rates as opposed to population, which she figured meant that most of the funding would go to populous, Democratic-leaning states.

In March, Reynolds campaigned on Twitter, saying ARPA would disproportionately award money to states that “chose aggressive shutdowns and mismanaged their state budgets.”

“We ended COVID in a good financial position,” Reynolds told the Sioux City Journal editorial board that same month. “You shouldn’t punish states that do that.”

The state did not end COVID-19; Iowa currently has one of the most uncontrollable spreads of the coronavirus in the nation. The state has positivity rates and daily new infection rates that are almost double the national average, according to a Washington Post COVID-19 tracker.

This is not the first time Reynolds has attempted to take credit for state spending that uses ARPA funds. In September, she unveiled a plan to address Iowa’s housing shortage, which involved ARPA funding. In October, she lauded a $200 million broadband access grant for the state that was funded using ARPA.