McCormick, unaware of its benefits, wants to repeal Biden’s Infrastructure Law

Pennsylvania has received over $13 billion from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Law, but that hasn’t stopped McCormick from calling for its repeal

Dave McCormick, a former Connecticut based hedge fund manager running against US Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) in the 2024 election, has made repealing President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law one of his key campaign issues. 

However, it appears that the former hedge fund manager is unaware of what’s in the infrastructure bill or how Pennsylvania has benefitted from the bill since it became law. 

“The number one thing you do with a Senate majority, a House majority and Republican president in the White House is you roll back all those incredibly expensive Biden bills. The infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better – all of that stuff,” McCormick said on a conservative talk radio show last November.

At a campaign stop in Sullivan County last month, McCormick listed broadband as one of the top issues he’s heard the most, according to The Daily Review, but then went on to call himself a “huge supporter of infrastructure” even though he “came down on opposite sides of the infrastructure bill as Bob Casey.” 

Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, a Republican, asked McCormick a question in opposition to Casey’s work reconnecting Scranton and New York City via passenger rail.  

“We’ve got world class universities, we’ve got really great infrastructure with the exception of pipeline for natural gas. We have great broadband, generally speaking, access to New York City and other places,” McCormick responded. 

“I’m not sure like the train, maybe the train, I don’t know the facts, the pros and cons,” he added.

McCormick essentially admitted to not knowing about two major components about the infrastructure law during his response. 

Pennsylvania has received over $13.1 billion in funding from the infrastructure law and two key components include broadband expansion and passenger rail expansion. 

The commonwealth received close to $1.2 billion for broadband expansion last June and it is part of the Biden administration’s plan to have rural parts of Pennsylvania, and the country, connected to reliable high-speed internet by 2030. 

The infrastructure law will make traveling by passenger rail throughout Pennsylvania more desirable. 

Amtrak received $66 billion in federal funding and that money is funding critical station upgrades along Pennsylvania’s Keystone Line, which operates 13 daily trains between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvanian, which operates one daily train between Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City. Amtrak will also replace the current Amfleet with new Airo rail cars by 2029.

On top of those upgrades, Casey secured $144 million from the infrastructure law to add a second daily train on the Pennsylvanian Line and he announced Amtrak is in the early stages of reconnecting Scranton to New York City.