Kamala Harris Calls Infrastructure Spending 'A Human Rights Issue' - And Twitter Wasn't Having It

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — We all know rush-hour traffic on the 405 Freeway is downright miserable, but is it "human rights issue" bad?

That's how U.S. Senator Kamala Harris described the region's infrastructure needs in a tweet posted Tuesday night.

Harris wrote: "Here's the truth: infrastructure spending isn't a transportation issue for most Americans — it's a human rights issue."

It's not the first time Harris has referred to Southland traffic in such stark terms.

In an interview with McClatchy DC last November, Harris made a similar observation while citing a $59 million shortfall in state transportation funding, but at the time, she described the remark as a "joke".

"If you are ever on the 405 in LA and if you lived in Los Angeles people would tell you it is a human rights issue (laughs)...I joke, human rights, but the reality is that in a lot of places in our country people cannot afford to live where they work," she told McClatchy.

Reaction to Harris' tweet was less than supportive.

In:
• Kamala Harris
• Infrastructure