Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Maryland Democrats on Sunday urged Congress to authorize additional federal dollars needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore after it collapsed last week.
“I hope and expect this, too, will be a bipartisan priority,” Mr. Buttigieg said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” He cited the case of a Minnesota bridge whose $250 million reconstruction plan was approved by Congress in a unanimous vote two days after its collapse in August 2007, and added that “the pitch is, your district could be next, and this has historically been bipartisan.”The Department of Transportation announced on Thursday that it had allocated $60 million in emergency federal highway funding toward rebuilding the bridge.
That initial batch of money, which the department called “a down payment,” is unlikely to cover the full cost of construction that experts say could require hundreds of millions of dollars.
The push for additional federal funding reflects officials’ belief that a prolonged disruption to the Port of Baltimore would cause ripple effects across the U.S. economy.
The harbor has one of the largest facilities in the nation for wheeled cargo such as cars and trucks, and it serves as a key logistics hub for the auto industry for both imports and exports.
Persons:
Pete Buttigieg, Francis Scott Key, Mr, Buttigieg
Organizations:
Maryland Democrats, Sunday, CBS, Congress, Department of Transportation, Port
Locations:
Baltimore, Minnesota, U.S