Posted on November 20, 2024
President Joe Biden is taking an important step in his effort to lock in federal money to rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, including money for the bridge in a broader $100 billion disaster funding request he sent to Congress on Monday.
The request is necessary for Biden to secure the funding from the lame-duck Congress before he leaves office — fulfilling a pledge he made publicly just hours after the bridge was toppled following a ship strike last March.
The cargo ship Dali lost power multiple times after leaving the Port of Baltimore in the early morning hours of March 26, causing a cascading series of problems including a loss of control of the ship. It smashed into the Key Bridge, causing the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River and killing six road workers.
The cost of rebuilding the Key Bridge is estimated to be nearly $2 billion.
The disaster funding request that Biden made Monday is nearly $100 billion and includes $8 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation to “rebuild, repair, and reconstruct” roads and bridges “that have been seriously damaged by natural disasters or catastrophic failures from external causes” in 40 states, including Maryland.
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said the $8 billion would fund the program that Maryland would participate in to rebuild the Key Bridge, and that the president’s request also includes passing legislation requiring 100% federal funding for the bridge. Typically, the federal government funds 90% of such projects.
Cardin was among multiple Democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation who, speaking to reporters on Monday evening, expressed optimism about securing federal funding for the Key Bridge rebuild.
“The Maryland delegation has always supported other states in their hours of need, whether it was hurricanes, forest fires,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen. “We expect and hope the rest of the country to support us now when it comes to replacing the Key Bridge.”
U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, whose district includes the site of the Key Bridge, said there’s been bipartisan support for funding for the bridge. Mfume said he planned to work to ensure that favorable comments House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has made about disaster funding include the Key Bridge.
“I don’t want to dictate to the speaker or to the Senate how it should be proposed,” Mfume said, adding that he’s pleased with Biden’s effort. “He’s kept his word, and I’m very, very appreciative of it.”
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the collapse of the Key Bridge from the White House hours after the incident. He pledged 100% federal funding for a new bridge.
Biden, a Democrat, quickly promised after the bridge collapse that the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of rebuilding the bridge. He reiterated his promise during a site visit, saying he would “move heaven and earth” to help rebuild it.
Maryland’s lawmakers on Capitol Hill introduced legislation that would require that 100% federal funding, calling it the “Baltimore Bridge Response Invests and Delivers Global Economic Relief Act” or “Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act.”
The bill was introduced in April, discussed in July, and then stalled.
Early on, the far-right Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives insisted that the federal government recover money from the ship’s owner and managers before putting up any taxpayer dollars for the bridge. Since then, the U.S. Department of Justice reached a $100 million settlement. The state government remains in litigation.
Cardin said he and other members of Maryland’s delegation are open to various types of legislative logistics to get Congress to sign off on the funding.
“We’ve been told frequently, if there’s an emergency supplemental relief bill, that would be the best vehicle to use. We are agnostic as to which vehicle it is. We want to get it on a vehicle. So we will be very flexible as to how we can get this done,” said Cardin, whose term ends in January.
Biden’s emergency funding request rolls the Key Bridge into a broader emergency aid package that also includes funding for the ongoing response to Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which devastated parts of the South, as well as the 2023 wildfires in Maui, tornadoes in various states and other emergencies. The money would also replenish disaster aid and small business emergency programs that have been strained this hurricane season.
“We’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible,” Biden said when he visited the site of the collapsed Key Bridge in April.
Biden, who was in Brazil on Monday for the G20 Leaders’ Summit, wrote to Johnson, the Republican House speaker, that the funding request “is focused on the accounts that are most critical to aiding disaster survivors and impacted communities.”
Johnson rebuffed calls earlier this fall to bring Congress back into session to deal with disaster funding, saying the matter could wait until lawmakers returned to nation’s capital following the election.
“I urge the Congress to act quickly to pass a supplemental funding package to assist communities impacted by these hurricanes — and every other disaster since Congress last passed a comprehensive disaster package in 2022 — so that the people, families, businesses, and communities affected have the support they need to respond, recover, and rebuild responsibly,” Biden wrote.
