(USA Features) A Montana Republican is warning that Democrats are trying to pass some of the most controversial elements of their federal voter reform bill, the For The People Act, as part of broader infrastructure legislation.
“They want to have a federalization of our elections, and they want to have it all controlled,” Rep. Matt Rosendale told Newsmax’s
“That’s why they’re trying to ram this into what’s called an infrastructure bill (that) has ballooned,” Rosendale continued.
“It’s gone from anywhere from $1.5 trillion up to $3.5 trillion that contains things that no right-minded individual would try to define as infrastructure,” the Montana Republican added.
He noted that in Montana, there are a “lot of miles” between towns, and highway and bridge money is vitally needed.
“We certainly need our systems for our small towns and cities to make sure they have adequate water and sewers,” said Rosendale.
He went on to say that investments are also needed in broadband, which was vitally important to many workers who stayed home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We want to invest in those in those types of things, but there’s no way that you’re going to have tremendous support across the board for massive infrastructure or things that they’re calling infrastructure, including incredible amounts of spending that’s pushed into this bill to try to combat climate change,” he said.
The Montana lawmaker said it’s one thing to help provide states with the ability to access grant voting machines and other election functions, but “to have the federal government step in and start directing those funds and trying to control the elections at the federal level that the state should be and constitutionally are protected so that they can administer those elections, that’s not the way to go.”
He added that Democrats are also considering “slipping in” additional changes to immigration and amnesty, all using the budget reconciliation process that requires only a simple majority vote.
That is a “huge problem,” he noted.
“They have been allowing hundreds of thousands, literally 200,000, illegals per month to enter into our country, and now the Democrats are dispersing them to different communities around the nation,” he said.
“We’re starting to see some pushback from the individual states,” Rosendale added.
“But if you will bring 2 million people into the country that were here illegally, and then you start expanding voting into illegal immigrants, then we’re going to compound the problems that we’re facing right now,” said the Republican.