Minn. Rep. Stauber takes credit for American Rescue Plan airport grants he voted against

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) was “happy to announce” nearly $9.4 million in federal grants from the American Rescue Plan Act for airports in his district, even though he voted against it last February.

The Duluth News Tribune reported that Stauber announced the grants for 29 airports in his eighth Congressional District in a news release last month. Five of those airports received at least $1 million each, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Stauber’s news release did not provide a source of funding for the grants, according to the News Tribune. The FAA’s website states the funding comes through the ARPA, mentioning how the law “includes $8 billion in funds to be awarded as economic assistance to eligible U.S. airports” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stauber voted against the ARPA last February, joining most Republicans in the party-line 228-206 vote that led to its passage. Although he said he liked the idea of a bipartisan infrastructure bill, he felt that the one voted that passed was part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “bloated multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spend package.”

“I will not be complicit in paving a destructive and irreversible path towards socialism,” Stauber said in a press release last November. “Make no mistake; a vote for this ‘infrastructure’ package is a vote for the reckless multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spend spree. That’s why I voted NO.”

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party quickly responded to the News Tribune article in a press release Monday.

“It is pathetic to see Congressman Pete Stauber vote against President Biden and Democrats’ infrastructure bill, then try to take responsibility for the good that bill is doing,” Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said in the statement. “If Stauber wants credit for improving the lives of his constituents, he should actually lift a finger to improve their lives instead of trying to block bills that are creating jobs in his district.”

The ARPA will send a combined minimum of $6.8 billion to Minnesota over the next ten years, according to a fact sheet from the White House. A total of $297 million of the funds will go towards improving the state’s airports, allocated across five years.