U.S. Rep. Peter Stauber, center, touted a $1 billion federal investment to replace the aging Blatnik Bridge on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. He was criticized for voting against the infrastructure bill that provided that funding. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

President Joe Biden and Gov. Tim Walz will be in the Duluth area on Thursday to tout a hefty federal investment in the Blatnik Bridge replacement. But local U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber isn’t likely to be on hand, after both the White House and Walz called him out for hypocrisy over the massive infrastructure project.

Stauber, a third-term Republican congressman, touted the $1 billion earmarked for the span that connects Minnesota and Wisconsin, from Duluth to Superior. In a post on X, Stauber called the investment a “huge win” for the Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District and said he was “proud to advocate for these funds.” A chorus of social media users — and Walz, and the White House — quickly reminded Stauber that he repeatedly voted against the project as Biden’s budget worked its way through Congress.

Walz, a Democrat, put Stauber on blast in his own post on X, saying the Congressman “voted against every screw, steel beam, and concrete pier in this bridge.”

The White House also clapped back on X. The mildly snarky response: “POV: You voted against President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law but are taking credit for it.”

A White House spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that “we notify all elected officials on Presidential travel” — suggesting that the White House considers Stauber at least technically invited. But Kelsey Emmer, Stauber’s communications director, said his team found out about the event through a news release. “No, we didn’t get invited,” she said.

Emmer added her own shot: “Maybe they are confused though,” she said, adding, “their media advisory did say that they are headed to Duluth, Wisconsin on Thursday and we are in fact located in Duluth, Minnesota.” (A White House advisory did include a reference to “Duluth, Wisconsin.”)

Although Stauber voted against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021, he’s spent months lobbying Biden and the U.S. Department of Transportation to set some of the resulting funding aside for the Blatnik Bridge. The federal agency did not initially include the span in its list of approved projects.

“When it became clear that more needed to be done to make the Biden Administration prioritize the Blatnik Bridge, I joined Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar in calling on the White House and the Department of Transportation to allocate these funds,” Stauber said in a statement. “When a bill becomes the law of the land, I am going to fight to bring federal dollars back to Minnesota projects rather than sit by and watch it spent on garbage DEI trainings for Washington bureaucrats or economy-crushing Green New Deal initiatives in California.”

Biden is scheduled to speak at noon Thursday at Earth Rider Brewery in Superior. Air Force One will be flying into the Duluth International Airport for the visit.

As recently as December, Stauber joined U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin urging the Department of Transportation to provide the bulk of the $1.8 billion tab for the project.

“By replacing the Blatnik Bridge, the project would exemplify the type of critical infrastructure project that was envisioned by Congress,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.