The Arizona Democratic Party has been spending a lot of time issuing press releases touting the merits of the Biden/Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to Arizonans and how it will help lift them up and move the Grand Canyon state forward.
The Democrats also never miss an opportunity to remind Arizonans that not one Arizona member of Congress (Debbie Lesko, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and David Schweikert) voted for the infrastructure measure.
In one press release, Arizona Democratic Party spokesperson Hannah Goss commented:
“Let’s break it down for the four Arizona Republicans who voted against this historic legislation and the generation of jobs it’s going to create: Arizonans rely on our roads, bridges, and transportation systems to get to work or take their children to school every single day. Traffic bottlenecks and unreliable public transit systems are more than a nuisance — they make travel less safe and they hurt families’ pockets and quality of life when Arizonans can’t get to work, to school, or to their families. Come 2022, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, and Debbie Lesko should all have to answer for their NO votes on a popular investment package that is going to make life better for millions of their constituents.”
While the infrastructure legislation will greatly modernize Arizona in the areas of roads, bridges, airports, and waterways, perhaps the most enduring impact will be in the legislation’s efforts to bridge the digital divide through improved access to increase
Bridging the Digital Divide through increased broadband throughout Arizona.
Citing reporting from AZ Central, the Arizona Democratic Party cited 14 percent of Arizona residents lacked access to high speed broadband internet service.
Included in that 14 percent are just under 350,000 school age children. Of that number, about 56 percent of those children are Black, Latino, or Native American.
There have been stories during the pandemic of people having to drive miles, in either tribal lands or rural and urban settings, to public hot spots to find internet connectivity.
Please look at the below map to see the great digital divide, especially in rural areas, facing Grand Canyon state residents.
Maricopa County is the only one of the 15 Arizona counties that has more than 50 percent of its residents with actual access to high speed broadband and that area has only reached 65 percent of households.
Pima County with Tucson only has 44 percent.
Coconino with Flagstaff is also under 50 percent.
The worst Arizona counties with access to high speed broadband are Apache (five percent of households,) Santa Cruz (with eleven percent,) and LaPaz (with 19 percent.)
All the other counties are in between 20 and 46 percent.
As the Arizona Democratic Party noted, this digital divide “harms students, worsens education outcomes, stalls small business growth, and disproportionately impacts rural and Tribal communities.”
Through the Biden/Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (again, the one that did not get one vote from an Arizona Republican Congressman,) Arizona will receive at least $100 million (perhaps as much as $200 million) toward improving its broadband infrastructure. Qualifying Arizona residents may also be eligible for an “affordability connectivity benefit” which will assist low income individuals and families to purchase internet service.
According to reporting from NPR, many of these funds will greatly assist Arizonans that reside in rural and tribal areas.
ABC News reports that 24 percent of Arizonans will be eligible for the “affordability connectivity benefit.”
Commenting on the positive effects of bridging the digital divide across Arizona, House of Representatives Candidate Delina DiSanto stated:
“Back in July 2020, Kingman Unified School District had a board meeting for a call to the public about in-person school attendance. Many parents and teachers voiced their concerns about access issues of technology and internet access from home. Many do not have computers and they cannot work off of their phones, if they have one. There is no internet on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation and very little reception along that corridor. This same issue is affecting all of our rural areas in Arizona. We will lose a generation of our children’s education if we don’t help our children’s educational needs.
Rep. Paul Gosar voted against Biden’s Infrastructure Bill. He doesn’t care about our rural areas or our tribal communities. His insane rhetoric and actions which he feels depicts him as a hero shows the disturbing mental health issues he has. He’d rather play these outrageous games to gain attention than work for the people of Arizona and our nation. Helping Black, Latino, Native Americans and white low-income working class Americans is not an achievement he wants to work for. He is a compulsive attention seeker to divide our state and our nation. He is a cancer to our democracy.
I am extremely happy the Infrastructure Bill passed and broadband will be brought to these disadvantaged areas. Our children are our future. Our teachers are our heroes. Giving them this technology will not only help our children, but also will help Arizona’s and our nation’s future.”
Another House Candidate, Judy Stahl, has tweeted:
Did you know that nearly a third of Arizona students don't have access to internet? Many of them belong to Arizona's BIPOC communities. The broadband investments passed with the Bipartisan infrastructure bill will be a game changer for rural AZ. Time to #BuildBackBetter
— Judy Stahl (@Stahl4Congress) December 6, 2021
Former Arizona State Senator and current House candidate to succeed Ann Kirkpatrick, Kirsten Engel also relayed:
“This investment in digital broadband will be a gamechanger for our Southern Arizona communities. Expanding digital broadband and making it more affordable will help to bridge the digital divide for our students, improve access to healthcare in our more rural areas with telemedicine services, and create high-quality jobs across our state in the process.”
Revitalizing Native American Communities.
While bridging the digital divide in Native American Communities would be revolutionary on its own, the Biden/Harris Infrastructure Law will also revitalize the whole infrastructure of many Native American Communities in Arizona.
At an event at the Salt River Indian Community (please click here to watch the event/presser,) tribal leaders praised the $11 billion in investments in the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that were allocated toward Native American Communities in Arizona and across the country.
The $11 billion in investments in Tribal areas include:
- Funding for Native American healthcare.
- Increasing access to drinking and running water. According to reporting from KNAU, a third of the Navajo Nation does not have access to it or to put it this way, the ability to flush a toilet.
- Expanded broadband.
- Rebuilt roads, bridges, and highways.
The Arizona Democratic Party cited the main speakers at the event at the Salt River Indian Community.
President Martin Harvier, Salt River Indian Community:
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“Each day, nearly 600,000 vehicles use the highways and roadways through our community. In the fast-growing region here in the East Valley of the Phoenix metropolitan area, there is a great need to provide adequate maintenance to the existing infrastructure in the community and to provide the necessary infrastructure improvements for our members within our community.”
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“The infrastructure legislation recently signed into law by President Biden provides potential funding opportunities for a variety of infrastructure categories, specifically for Tribal communities.”
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“We expect this infrastructure legislation to present opportunities for the community and other Tribal Nations to fund large surface transportation projects. In addition, we will benefit by continuing to receive Tribal Transportation Formula Funds and other grant-funded opportunities to pave dirt roads, such as this one we’re in front of this morning.”
Chairman Robert Miguel, Ak-Chin Indian Community:
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“The almost $11 billion directly allocated to Indian Country from President Biden’s signature Bipartisan Infrastructure Law delivers the largest investment in Tribal infrastructure in history. My community and Tribal leaders across the country have been advocating for these sort of federal investments for generations to pave our roads, modernize our water systems, enhance broadband connectivity, and generally help bring our communities into parity with those that border us. President Biden and his Congress have finally delivered on what politicians have been promising for generations of true infrastructure investment in Indian Country.”
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“Also of great importance across Indian Country is that the law delivers the funds to ensure that every household has access to reliable high-speed internet. The digital divide has hit Native communities the hardest as our children have had to apply to colleges from McDonald’s parking lots because the connectivity to participate in the modern world hadn’t reached our communities — and that’s why the $65 million to expand broadband […] is a game-changer.”
Governor Stephen Roe Lewis, Gila River Indian Community:
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“We have vast infrastructure needs and our needs are diverse. We have hundreds of miles of unpaved roads, a lack of utility infrastructure, and we must modernize our entire waste-water treatment center. Now with this funding, we now have the ability to shore up our immediate infrastructure needs and begin to put long-term solutions in place.”
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“What’s so important about this part of the law is that it will help the community greatly accelerate the construction of our Pima-Maricopa irrigation project. […] To put some context around the significance, the community’s funding for this irrigation project last year was $20 million. That amount of funding allowed piecemeal projects to be completed but did not allow for significant, long-term project completion, which delayed our ability to protect and develop our water resources. Now, the agreement I am about to sign is for $92 million — that is an increase of $70 million that was made possible because of the funding made possible by the completion of water projects in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The funding will allow us to complete large-scale, long-term water projects while creating jobs in our community.”
The Biden/Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, supported by the whole Democratic Arizona Congressional Delegation and shunned by the Republican ones, will greatly benefit Grand Canyon State residents, modernize local infrastructure, transform technology, and move the state forward.
Voters need to remember who supported this forward thinking law (and who did not) when they consider which candidates to support in 2022, 2024, and beyond.
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