On July 1, 2026, James Comer put out a press release with good news for western Kentucky. The U.S. Department of Transportation had awarded $24 million to the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority to build Riverport West, an expansion of the region's main public port.

He called it "a major win for McCracken County" that "will help unlock new opportunities for economic growth across our region." His office laid out the work he'd done to land it: eight months of calls to senior officials at the Department of Transportation, a letter to Secretary Sean Duffy, a meeting he set up between Paducah leaders and DOT staff in Washington.

It is a good project. Paducah sits where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers meet, and 23 barge companies have operations or headquarters in the city. The existing port has leased out nearly every parcel it has. The new one will add a 650-foot dock, three barge berths, and more than a mile of rail.

There is just one thing missing from Comer's announcement.

Where the $24 Million Came From

The grant is a BUILD grant — the Department of Transportation's program for local and regional transportation projects. Comer's press release says so twice. What it never says is where the money in that program comes from.

The first page of the Department of Transportation's own funding notice for the 2026 BUILD round spells it out in a single sentence:

"The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58, November 15, 2021, IIJA) authorized and appropriated $1.5 billion to be awarded by the Department of Transportation ('DOT') for FY 2026 for Local and Regional Project Assistance Program Grants under National Infrastructure Investments."

That's the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. It set aside $1.5 billion a year for these grants, for five years running, through 2026. Paducah's $24 million came out of the last of those five pots.

Comer voted against that law.

The Vote

On November 5, 2021, the House passed the infrastructure bill 228–206. Comer voted no (Roll Call 369). It passed anyway, because 13 Republicans crossed over and made up for the Democrats who voted against it.

Kentucky's senior senator had already voted for it three months earlier. The Senate passed the same bill 69–30 on August 10, 2021, and Mitch McConnell voted yes. Rand Paul voted no.

So the money Comer spent eight months chasing exists because other members of Congress — including the Republican leader from his own state — voted to create it, while he voted to kill it.

What He Said At the Time

This isn't a case of a congressman quietly voting no on a big bill and hoping nobody notices the details. Comer explained his vote, at length, in a statement his office sent to Kentucky newspapers on November 10, 2021.

Here is what he said:

"I voted NO on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that passed Congress in the dark of night. Less than 10% of the bill contained surface infrastructure, like roads and bridges, with significant money going toward things that do not affect Kentucky's 1st District — like mass transit and green energy."

Read that last part again. Things that do not affect Kentucky's 1st District.

Paducah is in Kentucky's 1st District. McCracken County is in Kentucky's 1st District. The port Comer just spent eight months lobbying for is in Kentucky's 1st District, and the $24 million he's celebrating came out of the bill he told his constituents wouldn't do anything for them.

He was wrong. That's allowed — people get big bills wrong. What's harder to defend is going back four and a half years later and taking a victory lap for the money without ever mentioning you tried to stop it from existing.

He Even Told Us the Rule

The same 2021 statement contains a line that reads very differently in 2026. Comer was warning his colleagues about what a yes vote would mean:

"Any member of Congress who voted yes can also take credit for passage of the massive socialist spending bill — which will undoubtedly lead to more inflation and government dependency."

Comer's position in 2021 was that a vote is a claim of ownership. Vote yes on something, and you own it. That was his argument for why voting yes was so dangerous.

By his own rule, he doesn't get to own this one. He voted no.

Who Does Get Credit

Comer's press release thanks "the Trump Administration" for the investment. The Riverport Authority's executive director, in a quote included in that same release, thanked Comer along with Senators McConnell and Paul.

Nobody in the announcement thanks the law that put the $24 million on the table.

That is the whole trick. The program has a name — BUILD — that sounds like it has always existed. Federal money arrives with a Department of Transportation letterhead, not a roll-call number. Unless somebody goes and reads the funding notice, there is nothing in the announcement to tell a voter in Paducah that their congressman voted against the bill that paid for their port.

So here is the roll-call number: 369. November 5, 2021. Comer, Nay.

This Is a Playbook, Not an Accident

We've written about this move before, because it keeps happening.

In 2021, every single Republican in Congress voted against the American Rescue Plan — and then a whole group of them put out press releases bragging about the money it sent home, including some who later voted against refilling the same fund they'd told local restaurants to apply for. In North Carolina, Tim Moore spent a decade as House Speaker blocking Medicaid expansion, then called it something "we can all be very proud of" once it finally passed over his objections.

The pattern is always the same. Vote no. Let it pass. Wait. Show up for the ribbon cutting.

It works because voting and spending happen years apart, in different places, covered by different reporters. The vote is a five-second entry in a roll call in Washington. The check is a local TV story with a photo of the congressman.

What This Says About How He Represents Us

Comer has now been in Congress for nine years, and he chairs the House Oversight Committee — the committee that is supposed to make sure federal money is spent honestly and that the public can see what its government is doing.

He is also a congressman who does not make himself easy to ask about votes like this one. In July 2025, after Frankfort organizers reached out to his office eight times trying to find a date and finally invited him to a town hall of their own, Comer neither showed up nor sent anyone from his staff. When protesters showed up outside his Paducah office in chicken suits in March 2025 asking him to face voters, his spokesperson said he "does not plan on holding therapy sessions for left-wing activists suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome."

A town hall is exactly where a question like this gets asked. Congressman, you said this bill wouldn't help our district. Now you're announcing $24 million from it for our port. Which was it?

There is a good answer available, and it would take him about ten seconds: I voted against the bill, I still think it spent too much, and I'm glad this piece of it is coming to Paducah. That's honest. It's also not what happened. What happened is a press release that describes eight months of phone calls and never once names the law.

Western Kentucky is getting a port. That's genuinely good for Paducah, and the people at the Riverport Authority who spent years planning it deserve the credit they're getting.

Their congressman voted no.

Source

WPSD Local 6, "Comer secures $24M BUILD grant to extend Paducah's main public port" (July 2026). Photo: WPSD Local 6.