Three years ago, Pete Buttigieg was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a city with only about 160 traffic lights. Today “Mayor Pete” is “Secretary Pete,” the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed last year, it is overseeing one of the largest investments in U.S. bridges, roads, and railroads in more than half a century.
Buttigieg, 40, is a Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar and a former Marine Reserve officer who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. He now faces a pandemic-related supply chain crisis. tries to make sure hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers. they are well spent on aged transportation systems that desperately need repair.
At about 6:30 a.m. on January 28, this bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collapsed as a bus and some cars passed by. No one was killed, but several people were injured. Federal investigators are trying to understand why security inspectors had not warned that a collapse was imminent.
Anderson Cooper: When someone crosses a bridge, should they feel safe?
Pete Buttigieg: Yes. I mean, we have to make sure it’s safe. There are inspection standards that we set at the federal level. But … but here’s the problem. If a bridge is deteriorating, you will feel the consequences because it may need to be closed to keep it safe.
42% of U.S. bridges are at least 50 years old, and more than 7% are considered “structurally deficient,” including one not far from Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s office in Washington, DC.
Anderson Cooper: So that doesn’t look great.
Pete Buttigieg: I mean, look at that, right? That … tells a story right there. We’re right next to a thriving economic zone in the country’s capital, and you literally have chunks of rust coming out: pipes and the bottom of our bridge. Generally–
Anderson Cooper: Is that really … of that?
Pete Buttigieg: Yes, I think so. I think it used to be that bridge. (River)
When the overall state of infrastructure in that country was classified, the American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave the U.S. a C-minus.
Anderson Cooper: How is it possible for a country like the United States to have a C-minus in infrastructure?
Pete Buttigieg: Well, you get what you pay for. And for most of the time I’ve been alive, our country has been investing little in public affairs, for a long time; everyone here in Washington said, “We have to do it” or, “Let’s do it.” do that, ”he finally said, but we have plenty of time to make up for it.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill signed by President Biden in November guarantees spending at least $ 850 billion over the next five years. There is $ 55 billion to help communities remove lead pipes and provide clean drinking water, $ 65 billion to expand and make broadband Internet service more affordable, and $ 65 billion more to upgrade the country’s electricity grid. Many federal agencies are involved, but Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation will be the largest recipient of funds, distributing more than $ 560 billion over five years to improve everything from tunnels, bridges and roads to mass traffic, ports and airports.
Anderson Cooper: When was the last time the country invested that amount of money in infrastructure?
Pete Buttigieg: In terms of roads and bridges, we haven’t invested at that level since the Eisenhower administration, because they built the interstate road system in the first place.
Anderson Cooper: What will different people see in their lives or in their communities because of this investment?
Pete Buttigieg: I think one of the first things you’ll notice is the accelerated work on roads and bridges. not just the big, famous bridges of our biggest cities. There are thousands of bridges across the country.
One of the many things Pennsylvania will do with its money for infrastructure is rebuild the bridge that collapsed in Pittsburgh. And Washington DC plans to fix the “H Street” bridge we saw near Union Station. But in many cases, it is too early to know exactly which projects will be funded. This is because Buttigieg and his staff will donate some of the money to communities that will compete for discretionary grants. But more money is being sent directly to states, where local governors and leaders will decide how to spend it.
Anderson Cooper: In many communities, when they receive money, their emphasis is on building new roads. You are trying to focus on repairing existing roads. This is not always popular.
Pete Buttigieg: There’s always a bias towards the bright and new. But the truth is that as a country, we have to take care of what we have.
Anderson Cooper: In previous versions of the bill, there were provisions that would have required states to spend money on highway repairs before building new ones. These provisions were withdrawn.
Pete Buttigieg: The requirements are not there, but it’s still a good idea. And we will continue to encourage it.
Anderson Cooper: There is research that shows that historically most of the grant money goes to states that voted for the ruling party. Under Obama it went to the blue states, under President Trump it went to the red states. Will this happen again?
Pete Buttigieg: We’re really focused on getting this party policy out of the picture
Anderson Cooper: But no administration says, “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing.” But historically this is what happens.
Pete Buttigieg: But look what we’re really doing. So this last round of discretionary grants, for example, $ 1 billion that I had the final signature. In fact, we reviewed the requirement of Congress on how much is allocated to rural areas. Rural areas are not known to support my political party. But they … (laughs) have many needs. And so we are funding good projects there.
Moody’s analytics estimates that the infrastructure law will create 872,000 new jobs by the end of 2025. The projects on the drawing board can finally be produced.
For example, the Hudson River train tunnel between New York and New Jersey is a crucial artery that local leaders have been trying to improve for years.
Pete Buttigieg: It was absolutely the latest technology, the best construction … 110 years ago. (River)
Anderson Cooper: At nineteen, 1910.
Pete Buttigieg: Yes. And we are entering the 21st century, still depending on this centuries-old infrastructure.
The damaged equipment in the tunnel must be worked on at night so that no pieces fall on the tracks during the day. If an planned infrastructure grant arrives, construction of a new tunnel could finally begin next year.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has said he would like to use the money from the infrastructure to help build a companion to the congested Brent Spence Bridge that connects Kentucky and Ohio.
Airports across the country will receive money this year to improve their runways and terminals: LAX will receive $ 79 million, Chicago O’Hare $ 74 million, and Atlanta International Airport $ 92 million.
Secretary Buttigieg plans to use some of the infrastructure money to revitalize low-income black neighborhoods that were divided or damaged by the construction of interstate highways. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has expressed some skepticism.
Ron DeSantis at the press conference: I mean, I heard some things, some weird stuff from the Department of Transportation trying to do that on social issues. To me, a road is a road … so I mean I don’t know, I should take a look.
Anderson Cooper: Is a Highway a Highway?
Pete Buttigieg: Of course, a road is a road. But if a road was built in such a way that it eliminated, destroyed or divided a community of color, this is something we have to deal with …
Anderson Cooper: What are you doing? I mean, you won’t change a road.
Pete Buttigieg: Well, maybe. if the federal dollars are used to split a neighborhood or city, the federal dollars must be used to reconnect it. However, this does not always mean that the highway has to go completely. Maybe you need to bridge it around or around it, or introduce traffic or different options. But the thing is, transportation should always connect, never split.
The passage of the infrastructure bill in the Senate was the result of some serious bridges. Five Republican senators and five Democrats negotiated the deal and persuaded his colleagues to support it. In the House of Representatives, 200 Republicans and six Democrats voted against the legislation, but that did not stop many of them from later claiming credit for the money they gave to their districts.
Anderson Cooper: When you hear a member of Congress who didn’t vote for that money turn around and take credit for the money coming to your district …
Pete Buttigieg: It’s amazing, isn’t it? As irritating as it may be, as long as the project is done, as long as it benefits the people who live there, politics is what it is.
If you haven’t noticed, Pete Buttigieg is a very skilled politician himself. In 2019, when he announced that he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, most people did not know him and could not pronounce his name.
But they quickly learned.
He led the field in Iowa along with Bernie Sanders and finished second in New Hampshire. When he left the race in March 2020, he supported Joe Biden, who later offered him a position in the Cabinet. When he was sworn in, he became the first openly gay cabinet secretary to be confirmed by Congress.
Anderson Cooper: Did you think that that day?
Pete Buttigieg: Yes. Yeah Al that sounds pretty crap to me, Looks like BT aint for me either. Not long ago being gay meant you couldn’t have a job in the federal government, no matter if you were a soldier or a cabinet officer. You cannot be an accountant. You could lose your job …
Anderson Cooper: And if it were, you could be fired.
Pete Buttigieg: And a lot of people were. And knowing now that … that … I can be who I am and have this job, I … I know what that means to a lot of people.
In August 2021, Buttigieg and her husband Chasten adopted newborn twins, a boy and a girl.
The twins were born prematurely and their son, Gus, spent time in intensive care. But as supply chain problems escalated last fall, Buttigieg was attacked for taking parental leave during a crisis.
Tucker Carlson on Fox News: Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from work since August after adopting a son, paternity leave, they say, trying to figure out how to breastfeed, without a word on how it went.
Anderson Cooper: Were you surprised by this review?
Pete Buttigieg: A little. Yes. Because part of it came from corners that … talk a lot about family values. One thing I wanted to make sure people understood was that, as so many parents have to do, I took care of my kids and I took care of the business.
His agency has so far made hundreds of millions of dollars available to improve ports across the country, but supply chain problems remain a major challenge.
Anderson Cooper: Can you tell when the supply chain problem will be resolved?
Pete Buttigieg: When the pandemic ends, it will improve a lot. But it will take years to get the kind of transportation infrastructure we really need to withstand the next shock, whether it’s a pandemic or who knows, a certainly more extreme cyberattack related to climate change. we need to be more resilient for that.
The Infrastructure Act includes an unprecedented $ 66 billion over five years for Amtrak to upgrade its existing rails and …
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