Sen. Tammy Baldwin announces new infrastructure funds for Wisconsin brownfield cleanup

Democratic Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin announced on May 20 that she had secured five grants totaling $8.6 million for communities in the state to clean up and revitalize contaminated properties. The funds will come from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

Baldwin, who voted for the 2021 legislation, is running for reelection this November. Her likely Republican opponent, millionaire bank executive Eric Hovde, opposed the law and criticized it and other recent federal investments as major drivers of the national debt in a November 2023 address at his bank’s annual conference in California.

In a press release, Baldwin noted that brownfield cleanup funding will go to projects in Brillon, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Phillips, and West Allis to clean, redevelop, and revitalize those communities.

“These contaminated sites have sat vacant for years, deterring economic investments and leaving entire neighborhoods behind. I voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bring home long overdue investments to revitalize these abandoned areas into community assets where people can work, live, and play,” Baldwin said. “Today’s announcement puts Wisconsin on the path to cleaning up these hazardous sites, keeping Wisconsinites healthy, bringing new life to these spaces, and growing our economy.”

Wisconsin has already benefited greatly from the law, receiving money for hundreds of projects to improve transportation and deliver affordable high-speed internet. Those efforts are projected to create hundreds of new jobs in the state and clean energy for tens of thousands of homes.

Democratic Wisconsin U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan and Gwen Moore both voted for the law. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson voted against it, as did GOP Reps. Scott Fitzgerald, Glenn Grothman, Bryan Steil, and Tom Tiffany. 

Former President Donald Trump, who ran in 2016 on promises to “build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, sea ports and airports that our country deserves,” failed to achieve that during his term in the White House. In May 2019, he said he would not negotiate infrastructure legislation unless House Democrats stopped investigating his administration. 

In July 2021, Trump unsuccessfully tried to prevent Congress from passing Biden’s bipartisan law, writing: “Who are these RINO Republicans that are so dedicated to giving the Radical Left Democrats a big and beautiful win on Infrastructure? Republican voters will never forget their name, nor will the people of our Country!”