WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden will join Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a Wednesday event in Kentucky geared toward highlighting the results of the $1 trillion 2021 infrastructure bill, a White House official said Sunday.
The pair, together with Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, are to look at a ceremony highlighting the $1.64 billion in funding awarded to for the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project connecting the 2 states across the Ohio River.
Funding for the crossing features a recent bridge and rehabilitation of the heavily congested 60-year-old one.
The brand new bridge is meant to rehabilitate a heavily congested 60-year-old span and add a second crossing.
McConnell, of Kentucky, was among the many Republicans who voted for the infrastructure law, which was passed in November 2021, while many House Republicans including Representative Kevin McCarthy it.
McConnell said last week in a press release that “constructing a recent companion bridge on the Brent Spence Bridge corridor will probably be one among the bill’s crowning accomplishments.”
The event is ready to happen the day after McCarthy’s Republicans take the bulk within the House, breaking Democrats’ control of Congress and ushering in a period of divided government.
Kentucky and Ohio had sought funding for the project for years.
“This project is not going to only ease the traffic nightmare that drivers have suffered through for years, but it would also help be sure that the movement of the provision chain doesn’t stall on this nationally significant corridor,” DeWine said.
Then President Barack Obama visited the crossing in 2011 and urged Congress to pass a jobs bill costing billions of dollars that he said could include rebuilding the bridge, which by then had already been declared functionally obsolete.
During his 2016 run for the White House, Donald Trump backed funding for the project, but he failed during his 4 years in office to secure money for it or to pass the massive infrastructure bill he repeatedly promised.
The 2021 infrastructure law includes $27 billion over five years to repair and replace hundreds of aging U.S. bridges.
Other administration officials including Vice President Kamala Harris may even tout infrastructure awards in other events this week.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
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