‘They’re such jerks’: House Democrat slams his Senate colleagues' bipartisan bill
Rep. Peter DeFazio, the 74-year-old Oregon Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee, has been an outspoken proponent of green energy — and this week, he lambasted his Senate colleagues for watering down his proposals and recommendations in the refecent bipartisan infrastructure package.
NBC News' Sahil Kapur quotes DeFazio, who has been serving the U.S. House of Representatives since the 1980s, as saying that the "crap written by those 12 Trump senators" was "all pro-fossil fuel" and "does virtually nothing to reduce fossil fuel pollution from transportation."
House Transportation Chair @RepPeterDeFazio on Senate infrastructure bill: \u201cThe crap written by those 12 rump senators, who are all pro-fossil-fuel actually, does virtually nothing to reduce fossil fuel pollution from transportation. So I'm trying to fix that in reconciliation.\u201d— Sahil Kapur (@Sahil Kapur) 1632332544
DeFazio, according to Kapur, complained, "They basically took out all of our climate provisions. They took my electric bus program, and they cut it and then they said oh, and a third of the money has to be spent on fossil fuel buses. I mean, they're such jerks…. The industry could've written their bill."
DeFazio has previously been critical of the Senators who work on the bill, including the Democrats:
In a fiery tirade to fellow Democrats during a closed-door meeting Tuesday, DeFazio called the bill \u201ccrap.\u201d He blasted the White House and Rob Portman, Susan Collins and Kyrsten Sinema, who he referred to as the three \u201cRepublicans\u201d crafting the Senate dealhttps://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/27/tiger-of-the-house-house-infrastructure-maven-something-something-501008\u00a0\u2026— Christopher Cadelago (@Christopher Cadelago) 1627423700
Tensions have increased recently between progressive House Democrats and the small group in the party, including Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who are threatening to dramatically curtail or even tank the much larger reconciliation bill that would include much of President Biden's agenda.
