Mayors scramble for face time with Buttigieg with billions of infrastructure dollars at stake

WASHINGTON

With hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants up for grabs under the infrastructure law that President Joe Biden signed this month, mayors from Sacramento to MiamiDade are anxiously seeking face time with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor who could green-light their pet projects.

The competition started months before the infrastructure bill even passed, but now it’s kicked into high gear, with city leaders crafting ambitious plans in hopes of securing a windfall of federal funds.

“I think you have a bit of a scramble right now among mayors and leaders around metro areas around the country to make sure that not just our priorities but our faces are in front of folks,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told McClatchy.

Lucas, a Biden ally,was among the 50 mayors at the White House when the president signed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law, marking his second trip to Washington in two weeks.

The new infrastructure law steers $660 billion to the Transportation Department, including more than $200 billion in discretionary funding that will be doled out as competitive federal grants over the next five years.

That funding includes money for the establishment of new grant programs and significant increases for existing grant programs, which presents a unique opportunity for local governments to pay for significant projects if they’re able to persuade Buttigieg’s department to fund them.

Buttigieg, who served as mayor of South Bend,

Ind., from 2012 to 2020, alluded to the opportunities for local officials last week at an event with Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott.

“The job of mayor I continue to agree is the most important and difficult and demanding in government. It’s only gotten more so since I left my time as mayor, although I will say it would have been nice when I was mayor to have this big of an infrastructure fund coming my way,” Buttigieg said.

City leaders around the country are enthusiastic about the potential projects that could see federal dollars in the next five years under the law.

“All of this money — and what will be our share of it — can be transforma

EVAN VUCCI AP Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks with Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., before the signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Nov. 15.

Cyclists alongside cars on the Rickenbacker Causeway.

Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava unsuccessfully seeks a meeting with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in April.