White House ramps up efforts to promote infrastructure

Biden administration touts $1 trillion infrastructure bill WASHINGTON Reuters - The White House is ramping up efforts to promote the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and to improve roads, bridges and airports.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be on a four-day, six-state tour starting Tuesday, and will take place in Florida, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada and New Hampshire to talk about the infrastructure law.

Buttigieg will use grants approved in the November 2021 infrastructure law, including $12 million for the Port of Tampa, $20 million to complete the Nevada Pacific Parkway connection and expand capacity for dual access to Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail lines, and $24.5 million to reconstruct roads and pathways connecting to a major amusement park in Ohio.

White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu said this week that we are building a team, we're getting the money out of the door and we're telling the story.

Landrieu said that this bill is a transformational bill, as it also funds public lands, clean water and electric grid projects.

The administration has funded more than 5,000 projects and released around $113 billion. The administration will grant billions of dollars in additional grants, including electric vehicle charging stations, through the end of 2022.

Over the next year or so you will be able to see these things coming out of the ground, said Landrieu.

He said the U.S. agencies are working closely with states and cities on many funding programs. If states are slow coming in, we got on the phone and called them all. We want to tell you again, ''We're trying to get you this money. How can we help? On Wednesday, the Commerce Department said all 50 states submitted initial planning awards under the $42.45 billion fund to extend broadband to rural areas. The administration said all states submitted EV infrastructure deployment plans required under the $5 billion EV charging program.

Landrieu said that we have gotten 100% participation on these major structural programs so that the next big thing can happen.

The Transportation Department announced $1.66 billion in grants for 1,800 new buses this week. The 150 awards include $116 million for New York City to buy 230 battery-electric buses to replace older diesel buses and $280,000 for Fayetteville, North Carolina to buy three light transit vehicles.

The Transportation Department awarded $2 billion in grants to modernize roads, bridges and other projects, including $25 million for California's High-Speed Rail program last week.