On Friday, the Biden Administration asked Congress for $3.1 billion in emergency funding to rebuild major highways, including the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
After the collapse of the Key Bridge, President Biden pledged that the federal government would pay the full rebuilding cost.
“The day the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, the president made clear that the administration would use the full force of the federal government to help the city of Baltimore every step of the way,” Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson. “Since then, the administration has engaged in a significant rescue and salvage effort and worked to reopen the channel, marshaling a full range of federal agencies led by a Unified Command in close collaboration with the state of Maryland. However, these efforts represent only the first stage of what will be a significant rebuilding effort.”
The emergency funding for Baltimore comes as part of a larger spending package meant for wildfire damage and ahead of hurricane season.
The $3.1 billion in funding would go to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) emergency relief fund which is vastly underfunded. In April, it had a $2.1 billion backlog of projects and only $890 million on hand.
The new funding could help the Key Bridge, highways in Hawaii destroyed by wildfires, and other emergency transportation projects.
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Source: The Washington Post, The Associated Press
