Portman keeps focus on infrastructure
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) held a conference call with reporters Tuesday to provide an update on the progress of a bipartisan bill being proposed.
The main issue on the table is infrastructure, and one that Portman hopes will become a more acknowledged issue going forward. The bill being proposed and being negotiated about is something the senator hopes will address many different problems prevalent in the United States of America.
“If we get it right, it’s going to be great for the country,” Portman claimed about the impact the bill would have. “It’s going to create jobs, it’s going to improve the efficiency of our economy including Ohio. We’ve got plenty of infrastructure challenges.”
Portman has gone at length about the bill before, though he is definitely
swearing for it now the closer it gets to being approved. With claims of a rise in productivity and more money going back into making the country better, it is something he hopes will be a boon to not only the country, but the state as well.
Considering the low ratings America seems to get when it comes to the issue, it might be warranted.
“We got a C- from the American Society of Civil Engineers,” Portman said, following it up with an anecdote. “I reminded my team that I got a C- in college once. I didn’t think that was
terrible, but it was a bad grade.”
Citing the various bridges and similar buildings in Ohio that have issues of being unusable, he wants to make sure the state comes back to help. The benefits for the country do come first, especially when it comes to the economical advantages it’ll bring, but Ohio benefiting from it certain helps with it.
“We got about 20% of public transit vehicles in bad condition,” Portman added when it came to specifics about Ohio’s infrastructure problems. “They can hardly be used. In Cleveland, they’ve got a bunch of them they had to pull off.”
Again, the issue has become a bipartisan concern and Portman has been working hard on it. While there have been talks to put it on the table soon, he thinks it still needs work in order to make sure it goes through the first time.
Federal permitting reform has also been talked about alongside a jobs act that will focus mainly on easing the process of permitting and similar processes. As of now, it is currently being talked about as an addition to the infrastructure bill, but is receiving special focus before any real decisions will be made.
The Pray Safe Act has also been passed, which focuses on giving faithbased organizations the tools to help protect themselves with some form of security due to rising threats and violence against them. The Civilian Reserve Emergency Workforce Act has also been approved to help reserves keep their employment depending on when they’re brought out of the reserves.
The issues of the border situation is still an ongoing issue that Portman is trying to address and hopes that the government will start getting back into it. There is also an unrelated surge in the use of fentanyl narcotics, something Portman believes is due to a mix of the pandemic and the falling costs for the drug itself.