KITTERY, Maine — It was underneath the Piscataqua River Bridge in Kittery Thursday where Maine Congressman Jared Golden voiced his frustration about the infrastructure bill hold-up in Washington.
Golden, construction, and union workers gathered at the bridge that is currently undergoing key repair work. The $1T infrastructure package that passed the U.S. Senate last week would provide Maine with tens of millions of dollars for road and bridge repair and give workers projects for the next decade.
As the bill waits to be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives, Golden and eight other House Democrats wrote a letter to their colleagues and threatened to vote against President Biden's budget resolution until the infrastructure bill is passed.
“We have a really simple demand, put the infrastructure bill on the floor, take a vote, send it to the President’s desk, then we’ll vote on starting the other process," Golden said during the press conference. "I don’t think you’re going to find that this group of individuals is going to block that from taking place but we’re not going to let this infrastructure bill sit for the next six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks, how many months?"
Members of the House are expected back in Washington D.C.next week and Golden said he is hopeful his colleagues vote on the bill next Tuesday.
"The American people don’t support that type of politics, it’s inside baseball. We got a great infrastructure bill here, let’s just get it done," Golden added.
Golden also expressed frustration with the handling of the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan. The Marine served in that country after the 9/11 attacks and said the White House "should be held accountable."
“Look, President Trump was very clear that he intended to get us out of Afghanistan. That was six, seven months ago," Golden said. "The Biden administration decided to stick with that so there was a lot of time to plan for this. Why a decision was made not to start that evacuation process more quickly, more aggressively, I don’t know."
Golden added the evacuation of American soldiers, military equipment, and allies should have begun when Trump established an agreement with the Taliban. The Democrat said he's always been supportive of the decision to bring the troops home.
The job in Afghanistan, Golden added, was accomplished when Osama bin Laden was killed 10 years ago.