Biden sees collapsed bridge, touts his law
PITTSBURGH — Arriving just hours after a Pennsylvania bridge collapse, President Joe Biden stared into the cratered muddy earth where the aging span fell early Friday, striking evidence supporting the $1 trillion infrastructure law he already had planned to tout on his trip to Pittsburgh.
Standing before concrete barriers papered with yellow police tape, Biden craned his neck to look out over the gaping expanse left by the crumbled bridge, as the smell of gas from a nearby leak filled the air.
“The idea that we’ve been so far behind on infrastructure for so many years, it’s mind boggling,” Biden said.
As for the rest of the nation’s aging bridges, he pledged, “We’re gonna fix them all.”
The bridge collapse offered Biden a striking example of what he has declared is an urgent need for investments in the country’s infrastructure.
The infrastructure law signed by Biden has earmarked about $1.6 billion for Pennsylvania bridge maintenance, with tens of billions more for public transit, highway maintenance and broadband internet expansion in the state.
Speaking later at a manufacturing research and development center, Biden promised that money from the infrastructure law would help rebuild the collapsed Pittsburgh bridge and “thousands of other bridges across the country,” but he also expressed urgency to get the funding distributed.
“We’ve got to move,” he said. “We don’t need headlines that say someone was killed when the next bridge collapses.”
During his remarks, Biden touted strong job growth, particularly in manufacturing, during his first year in office, and spoke further about how his infrastructure law invests in replacing lead pipes, repairing bridges and expanding broadband access, which he said would create jobs for Americans “so nobody’s left behind.”
Biden also announced during his speech that Union Pacific, one of the nation’s largest railroads, will make the largest-ever purchase of battery-powered locomotives when it adds 20 of them to its fleet.
The trip marked a return to the president’s roots in more ways than one: Biden grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and launched his last presidential campaign in Pittsburgh in 2019. He won that race in part with a direct appeal to working class voters, and his allies hope a return to that message — and playing up the strength of the economy on his watch — will help him overcome a polling deficit that Democrats worry could drag down their other candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
While at the bridge, Biden spoke with Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and first responders, and was joined by Sen. Bob Casey, Rep. Conor Lamb and Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
Friday’s trip was an opening stop in a broader campaign to promote White House achievements in key states before the midterms, and it brought Biden to one of the top-targeted states this cycle. The battle to replace Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is not seeking reelection, is expected to be one of the most competitive Senate races this year.
The White House announced Biden’s trip on Monday.
Biden, who has seen his poll numbers sink in the midst of an unrelenting pandemic and high inflation, said it was important that he “go out and talk to the public” about what he’s accomplished and about why Congress needs to get behind the rest of his domestic agenda.