U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Announces $1.8 Billion in Infrastructure Grants Headed to Communities Across the Country in Virtual News Conference

WASHINGTON - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian held a virtual news conference to announce $1.8 billion in awards from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program for 148 projects across the country-investments made possible by the Biden-Harris administration's historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Secretary Buttigieg spoke with reporters about the importance of these RAISE grants and the positive impact the projects they fund will have on communities nationwide.

The full transcript of Secretary Buttigieg's remarks are below:

Thanks very much. I want to thank everyone for joining, and I thank you, Natalie, and the White House team for everything that has helped to deliver President Biden's vision for enhancing America's infrastructure. And this is a big part of it.

Thanks very much. I want to thank everyone for joining, and I thank you, Natalie, and the White House team for everything that has helped to deliver President Biden's vision for enhancing America's infrastructure. And this is a big part of it.

I know I don't need to tell people this, but I just want to emphasize the context, which is because of a lack of investment, infrastructure in America had been getting into worse and worse condition for decades until President Biden's arrival.

One of his first efforts was to put together a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I had the honor of being there when he signed it on the South Lawn of the White House in November 2021. And now, thanks to that leadership, American infrastructure is getting better and not worse.

We have completed over 10,000 transportation projects, with another 40,000 and counting moving forward. And today, we have the privilege and pleasure of announcing another $1.8 billion to fund 148 major transportation projects through our RAISE program.

These are projects that are going to improve everyday life and the cost of living in communities across the country, and tempted as I am to go through all 148 of them, I'll just mention a handful of examples that we're excited about:

In Durham, North Carolina, Holloway Street is the city's busiest bust route, even though it currently lacks the infrastructure to make it safe and easy for people to walk, bike, or roll to the bus. So, we're awarding $12 million to help the city build curb ramps, improve their intersections, upgrade bus stops, build sidewalks, and add pedestrian trails so that people can reach the bus safely.

In Iowa, in 3 rural counties, were awarding $25 million for a package of 29 bridge replacements addressing bridges that had been in poor condition. The new bridges are going to make it easier for residents to get where they need to go. They're going to make it safer and more efficient for farmers to move their equipment and their products without long detours, and they're going to make it less expensive to move goods in this area-which is part of how we're investing in supply chains across the country, which in turn helps to lower the cost of goods.

And in Menominee, Michigan, on the upper Peninsula, a port essential to local businesses-by both shipping and receiving commodities like pulp and pig iron-is getting the improvements that it needs. It's had a deteriorating dock wall and lacks some of the rail infrastructure that's needed to efficiently, quickly and reliably move more goods, which in turn means more heavy trucks need to move over that port in ways to put pressure on that infrastructure. So, we're awarding $21 million to help reconstruct that dock wall, install rail spurs, and to increase the birthing and rail capacity to move goods.
So those are just a few examples out of 148 projects that we're awarding today, and we're seeing more and more of the projects from our prior rounds of funding get into construction and toward completion, from Alaska to San Francisco.

Some of these projects are not the multi-billion-dollar projects that drive national headlines, but every one of them is essential to the community where it's happening. And when you add up these and the other thousands and thousands of projects moving forward across the country, they add up to a national transportation system that is getting significantly safer, more sustainable, and more efficient to move both people and goods.

That goods part is a priority for President Biden. We were there in 2021, as supply chain disruptions caused by COVID led to inflation here and in every developed economy-our work to strengthen supply chains has helped contribute to inflation coming down by more than two-thirds. We know there's a lot more to do, not just on supply chains, but broadly on the cost of living. It's why President Biden took action to lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs; it's why he's taking on corporations that are price gouging; and it's why it's been focused on cutting taxes for families. But here at our part at DOT we are very focused on supply chains.

I'll end by pointing out one other thing that the thousands of projects across the country-and the 148 projects in this round-have in common: zero out of that number was invented or cooked up here at USDOT Headquarters in Navy Yard in Washington, DC. These are community visions. Many of them are longstanding dreams that would have happened, except that they lacked Federal support. We are bringing that Federal support, thanks to President Biden's leadership.

So, you're going to see me out on the road a lot, seeing this summer of construction, inviting everybody here to go out and see some of the projects close to you. Get to know the workers getting the good-paying, often union, jobs on those projects and the communities that benefit. Because this is really a set of examples about what's possible once we invest in our country and invest in our future.
With that, let me turn it over to Natalie Quillian to share more from the White House.

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