Wied praises airport upgrades, shrugs off concerns about frozen funds for other projects

While first-term Congressman Tony Wied continues to push the Trump administration line of cutting government spending he was moved to praise the upgraded Appleton airport in his latest newsletter.

He noted the 10 new gates at the new terminal and suggested the expansion of airport services will impact many people in Northeast Wisconsin.

“Appleton Airport has a $700 billion impact on the local economy,” the newsletter stated. “As the Transportation and Infrastructure Vice Chairman on the Subcommittee on Aviation, I look forward to working together on issues in the future.”

In a call with his office on Monday morning, an aide said he wasn’t sure if the Congressman knew that $13 million of the $68 million airport upgrade came from the Biden administration’s Infrastructure and Jobs Act, but assumed he did.

Asked if the Congressman believes the federal government has a role to play in investing in communities, the aide said, “He’s committed to building up the district in Appleton and Green Bay. The Appleton airport was a case of spending money efficiently and wisely and he’s looking to make sure that’s the case across the board to avoid waste.” 

Future Infrastructure and Jobs Act spending is in doubt in the area due to President Trump’s refusal to release funding, despite various court rulings that doing so was in contravention of the law. The previous Congress passed the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and previously allocated funds cannot legally be frozen.

There is currently concern about the status of $25 million allocated for the new transit center in Appleton, money appropriated by Congress in 2009 under the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Act (RAISE). 

Asked if Wied was concerned about the freezing of funds appropriated by former Congresses elected by the American citizens, the aide said, “I would say in regard to making sure everything is done legally, that is definitely a concern but there are various legal arguments regarding the president’s actions and it’s up to the courts. He is generally supportive of the efforts of the administration and believes there are different ways the president has authority over these funds.”

Finally, the aide said he didn’t have anything to say at this time about the projection from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that the current House blueprint for President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would add nearly $3 trillion to the deficit. The bill would slash $2 trillion from spending, mostly from the social safety net. The resulting deficit would come from increased spending in Homeland Security and the military as well as large tax cuts. 

If Trump’s tax cuts skew in a similar manner to his $2 trillion tax cut in 2017, the wealthiest figure to make out significantly better than the working class. According to an assessment of that 2017 cut, the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities stated, “as a share of after-tax income, tax cuts at the top — for both households in the top 1 percent and the top 5 percent — are more than triple the total value of the tax cuts received for people with incomes in the bottom 60 percent.”