Signs promoting Biden’s infrastructure may break the law, Cruz alleges

Sen. Ted Cruz is asking a federal watchdog to investigate whether the Biden administration is violating the Hatch Act by using taxpayer dollars to tout its 2021 infrastructure law — a move that comes amid evidence that most voters are unaware of one of the president’s biggest legislative achievements.

The Texas Republican argues that the administration has “highly politicized” the law, including by encouraging projects funded by the statute to post signs giving credit to President Joe Biden, according to a letter from Cruz provided to POLITICO. He pointed to guidelines posted by the White House specifying that the signs say in large letters: “Project Funded By President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

It's not uncommon for the names of presidents and other public officials to appear on signs announcing projects they helped fund — and critics of former President George W. Bush similarly complained when the Internal Revenue Service sent letters to taxpayers promoting his tax cuts. But Cruz argues that Biden takes it to another level, alleging that the White House “unilaterally rebranded” the 2021 statute as “President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

“I write to refer this to you for investigation as a possible violation of the Hatch Act, federal law that broadly prohibits using taxpayer dollars for campaign activity,” Cruz wrote on Thursday to Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel. “Congress, not President Biden, wrote [the infrastructure law], and it did not do so to aid the President’s reelection campaign.”

“These displays are nothing more than campaign yard signs courtesy of the American taxpayer,” Cruz wrote.

In a statement to POLITICO, White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson responded that the signs “promote transparency and inform taxpayers how federal dollars are being spent.” She also noted that Cruz voted against the law.

“If Senator Cruz were half as concerned about Texas kids getting safe drinking water as he is about signs, he might have voted for the Infrastructure Law and to send $31 billion to tackle essential infrastructure needs across Texas,” she said. “President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is building roads, expanding high speed internet access, and replacing lead pipes across Texas.”

The Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the vast bulk of the infrastructure money, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The White House guidelines Cruz cites also specify similar wording for projects funded by three other major Biden-era laws — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and a 2021 pandemic relief law known as the American Rescue Plan. Together, these statutes provide an estimated $1.6 trillion in direct spending and tax breaks for projects designed to rebuild infrastructure, promote a shift to green energy and create U.S. manufacturing jobs, among other needs.

For most projects funded by four statutes, the guidelines specify that the signs should say, “Project Funded By President Joe Biden’s [Insert Name of Law],” along with a logo reading, “INVESTING IN AMERICA.”

Cruz also alleges that the red, white and blue “INVESTING IN AMERICA” logo — originally worded “Building a Better America” — was “purposefully designed to look like the Biden-Harris campaign logo,” and was originally designed by the same firm. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on this part of Cruz’s complaints.

The sign guidelines were last updated in March 2023.

The four spending laws have loomed large in Biden’s case for a second term, as Cabinet leaders and other administration officials have crisscrossed the country to tout bridge projects, battery plants and other efforts being funded by the initiatives. Biden’s campaign has especially relished the contrast with former President Donald Trump, whose own $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan died a quiet death in a Congress that at the time was under GOP control.

The infrastructure law drew widespread bipartisan support in the Senate but got only 13 Republican votes in the House before Biden signed it in November 2021.

But despite the White House-approved signage, repeated polls have shown many voters are unaware of the infrastructure law or unsure how much credit Biden should get for it.

In a POLITICO-Morning Consult poll published in May, just 46 percent of registered voters said they have heard “some” or “a lot” about the law. Biden had only a 3-percentage-point advantage over Trump on the question of which president has done more to promote infrastructure improvements — and seven in 10 Republicans said Trump deserves the credit.

In a February 2023 guidance from OMB cited in Cruz’s letter, the White House Office of Management and Budget told all chief financial officers at the executive agencies that it “encourages the use of public signage on projects funded by these laws as well as acknowledgement of such Federal funding in other public materials as appropriate, in furtherance of openness and transparency.” Those laws included the 2021 infrastructure law.

The OMB document said its suggestions “do not constitute official guidance or prescribe specific tasks for agencies.”

Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, also argues that the sign guidelines run afoul of the First Amendment by “conscripting others to deliver his political message.”

In another letter, addressed to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, Cruz asks whether the OMB alert is considered a “rule” under the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 statute that allows Congress to strike down executive branch regulations with simple-majority votes.