Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
Last month, President Joe Biden signed into law, with the help of our Nevada Democrats, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. For Nevadans, this law means historic federal investments for our roads, bridges and waterways.
Critically, it will also create thousands of good-paying jobs, including union jobs, and improve the lives of families across our state.
This bipartisan infrastructure package is about what we call carpenter economics. It will bring jobs, yes, and beyond that, it will help build careers that come with good pay and benefits to help build stronger communities.
As a nearly two-decade-long union-affiliated carpenter in Southern Nevada, I know firsthand the importance of a job that builds a career and puts food on the table. As I told Vice President Kamala Harris last summer when she visited to discuss the economic impact of infrastructure investment, I have built a career on infrastructure and fed my family on infrastructure in Nevada.
Thanks to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., the infrastructure bill will help address many of the greatest crises facing our state, from drought to wildfires. She made sure the deal included her bill to fund water-recycling projects in Nevada, which could include a project to help us combat drought and provide water for more than 500,000 households in the region. She also secured $3.4 billion to prevent and fight wildfires across the American West.
These critical investments will help protect our state’s communities and infrastructure for generations to come.
The success of the infrastructure bill is a bright spot at a time when Republicans have often refused to work with Democrats to get anything done. But it’s clear that this bill was too good to block, which is why Republicans in the House and Senate joined Democrats to get it across the finish line and onto the president’s desk. It’s a jobs bill that will support working families across the country, and so it makes sense that it would get bipartisan support.
Unfortunately, Republican candidates in Nevada have opposed this bill because of partisan politics. Adam Laxalt, who is running against Cortez Masto, said he would have opposed the bill. If Laxalt were in the Senate, he would have tried to kill thousands of new jobs for Nevada. Laxalt would have acted to block funding to combat drought and wildfires, leaving our state without the support it needs to protect our communities. And Laxalt would have voted to deprive Nevadans of support to fix our roads, bridges and transportation that all workers depend on.
Labor leaders in the state have denounced Laxalt for his extreme position, calling him a “threat to Nevada jobs.” They’re right, and we know that threatening our jobs means threatening our state’s economic future, too. If Laxalt would oppose a jobs bill that 19 Senate Republicans backed, we know he would position himself as one of the most extreme, right-wing members of the Senate if elected. We can’t let that happen.
This new bill is the kind of historic investment we have been waiting for. It will make an enormous difference to families across our state and help get more people back to work as we continue to recover from the pandemic. I know Cortez Masto and our Democratic congressional delegation have my back because they championed this bill, and I will work hard to make sure they are not replaced by Laxalt or anyone else who would threaten new jobs for our state.
Jovan Johnson is a journeyman for Carpenters Local 1977.
