President Biden Mentions Infrastructure Program as He and Others Congratulate Trump

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8, 2024 – Political leaders and trade groups alike are congratulating President-elect Donald Trump on his Tuesday victory in the presidential election. 

Chief among those to congratulate the Republican President-elect was President Joe Biden, a Democrat who took time in his Thursday remarks to reiterate the infrastructure accomplishments of his administration.

“We’re going to see over a trillion dollars’ worth of infrastructure work done, changing people’s lives in rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty, because it takes time to get it done, and so much more that’s going to take time. But it’s there,” President Biden said in his address. “The road ahead is clear, assuming we sustain it.”

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program under the Commerce Department includes $42.45 billion to fund broadband deployment projects to unserved and underserved areas. BEAD was funded by $65 billion in broadband funding under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

Former President Barack Obama also congratulated Trump Wednesday in another sign that party hostility was dying down.

The Chairman of the National Lifeline Association was also quick to congratulate the President-elect and noted Vice President-elect JD Vance's past support for the now-defunct $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program.

“The NaLA congratulates President-Elect Trump and Vice President-Elect Vance on their victory in the 2024 presidential election. We are particularly grateful to Sen. Vance, who has been a staunch advocate for the ACP, and look forward to his continued support for keeping low-income American households connected to affordable Internet,” NaLA Chairman David Dorwart said Thursday.

The political leaders who congratulated Trump were joined by a few trade groups as well.

Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA - the Rural Broadband Association, released a statement Thursday saying “community-based broadband providers look forward to building upon the [Trump administration’s] prior efforts and their work since then to deliver affordable and lasting connections for residents and businesses in rural America.”

NTCA followed a Wednesday statement from the Motion Picture Association congratulating Trump on his victory and emphasizing the importance of the film industry for the American workforce.

“We look forward to working with the [Trump administration] on a wide range of important issues for the film, TV, and streaming industry, which supports more than 2.7 million American jobs, boosts more than 240,000 businesses, and delivers over $242 billion in wages to our workforce each year,” the association said in a statement that was not attributed to anyone in the organization by name.