San Antonio mayor joins push for Biden’s Infrastructure plan
San Antonio’s mayor Ron joins 369 other mayors in the letter
July 14, 2021Updated: July 14, 2021 10:04 a.m.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg
Kin Man Hui /Staff photographer
On Tuesday, July 13, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined 369 other mayors across the country in signing off on a bipartisan letter to Congress, urging them to take immediate action on President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework.
The Framework, announced on June 24, aims to devote time and money toward transportation infrastructure, clean water infrastructure, universal broadband, clean power, remediation of legacy pollution, and greater resilience to the changing climate.
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The thesis of the mayoral letter to Congress states, “This framework would be the largest long-term investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century – $1.2 trillion over eight years – to help make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just.”
“First, we strongly urge that no funding previously signed into law to help cities address the health, public safety and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic be ‘clawed back,’ repurposed or redirected to help pay for new investments in America’s infrastructure. Second, we call on our federal leaders to continue to empower local decision-makers by investing federal resources to help us build stronger communities and lift up those who have suffered so much during this pandemic – many of whom never fully recovered from the economic meltdown of ‘08.”
The letter from the United States Conference of Mayors goes on to frame specific avenues through which this plan can make a commitment to localism, by investing directly into cities through grants.
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On Tuesday night, Senate Democrats agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would touch on some of the pillars of Biden’s Infrastructure plan, like the expansion of Medicare and funding of climate-change initiatives, that they hope to pass on top of a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Whether either passes and under what parameters remains to be seen.
