According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration made sure districts led by a Democrat were taken care of when $600 million in TIGER grants were being awarded during the month of September.
Democratic-charged areas received 48% of the funding, while Republican territories claimed 33%. The rest went to projects that crossed district lines.
Republicans say this favoritism has been going on since the TIGER grant program was created back in 2009 when President Obama unleashed his $840 billion stimulus package to help boost a struggling economy. According to Democrats, more funding actually goes cities, where the party tends to hold power.
The AP revealed that during 2013, projects in 30 Democratic-held congressional districts received grants totaling $303 million while projects in 20 GOP-held districts won grants totaling $140 million.
“Just by the numbers one has to say that is looks like politics is involved because Democratic districts fare far better, significantly better than Republican districts,” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) told the AP. “This is more about funding President Obama’s political needs than funding our infrastructure needs.”
The U.S. DOT is denying such allegations, saying the process of awarding TIGER grants is an impartial one.
