The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Portman talks bipartisan infrastructure plan
Senator makes stop at Willoughby Rotary Club event
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, discussed the much-talked-about bipartisan infrastructure package during a visit with the Willoughby Rotary Club June 28 at La Vera Party Center in Willoughby Hills.
Portman was part of a bipartisan group of senators that met with President Biden at the White House June 24 when the president announced his support of the package.
The proposed plan includes $579 billion in new funding. That would include $109 billion for roads, bridges and major transportation projects, according to a White House fact sheet. Other funding includes $49 billion for public transportation, $66 billion for passenger and freight rail, $55 billion for water infrastructure, and $65 billion for broadband infrastructure.
“I think we’re going to be able to get something done here and hopefully get something done here that actually helps with our long-term problem we have in this country of deferred maintenance on infrastructure and so on,” Portman said while speaking to the rotary club.
“It’s not money that’s going to be spent next year,” Portman said. “It’s not stimulus. It’s more money that’s going to be spent in Willoughby over three to 10 years on something like a project, like a bridge.
“It’s money that’s spent over time for an asset that may last 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years,” he said.
The proposed plan exists as a “framework” — it’s only a few sentence — with thousands of pages needing to be written and agreed to, according to the Washington Post.
The senate is in recess, and Portman said the hope is over these two weeks that a lot of work can be done to flesh out the details of the bill and that can a vote can happen sometime in July. “We’ll see,” he added. “It’s going to depend on the Democrats in large measure because they’re in charge of the House and the Senate,” Portman said in an interview following his speech. “Both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader — Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer— have been a little reluctant to move this bill forward because they want a much bigger bill. And they want taxes. We want a focused bill, a smaller bill, core infrastructure and no taxes.”
Portman said the bipartisan group consists of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, but he said he thinks that one of the Republican members will leave the group. He expects the rest of the group will stick together, however.
While speaking with the rotary club, Portman also discussed the proposed Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students (JOBS) Act. The proposed legislation would make shorter-term education and training programs eligible for federal Pell grants. Portman said college isn’t right for everyone and for some, “it’s better if they have an opportunity to get a skill and be able to get a good job.”
“I just think we spend a lot of federal money, a lot federal tax dollars, saying, ‘You’ve got to get a degree, you’ve got to get a degree,’ when we should be saying, let’s take some of that money and say, ‘Hey, do you want to get a short-term certificate that’s industryrecognized to be able to be a truck driver, to be a welder, to have this coding certificate to be able to be a coder?’ We should encourage that and shift some of that money into that category.”