Maximizing infrastructure ‘impact’ means 'routing new dollars through old plumbing': Transportation Secretary
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg oversees a giant chunk of the new $1 trillion infrastructure bill: Roads, bridges, ports, airports, railways, and more fall under his purview.
It's around half of the $550 billion in new spending, including $110 billion toward surface transportation, another $105 billion for rail, and $42 billion for seaports and airports.
During a conversation with Yahoo Finance Live on Monday, Buttigieg laid out next steps once the "ink is dry" on the bill to get that money out, and how he's “making sure the American people see the most possible impact.” Diving into exactly what that means, Buttigieg gave people a sense of what to expect: “In practical terms, part of that means routing new dollars through old plumbing, so to speak.”
He pointed to existing programs that already have a process in place, like when a city is looking to repair a road or an airport needs to make an improvement. Buttigieg said plenty of ideas for infrastructure improvements have been waiting in the pipeline for a lack of funding.
“We have mechanisms for doing that,” he said, adding that “now we have much more to do it with.” In one example, the bill allots $17 billion for ports with that money set to largely move through the Army Corps of Engineers.
[Read more: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on supply chains: 'There will be disruptions']
Hours ahead of when President Biden is scheduled to sign the bill on Monday, Buttigieg noted that the Department of Transportation is hiring to staff "dozens" of new programs for the months and years ahead.
He acknowledged that Americans will see disruptions as the money rolls out and the actual repairs take place, but “just remember that on the other side of that is going to be the world-class infrastructure that America needs and deserves."
Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.
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