[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 45 (Thursday, March 9, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S751-S752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INFRASTRUCTURE
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, so many cities and towns across America
have the story of a segment of highway or a railroad track that cuts
ruthlessly through neighborhoods. These neighborhoods may not have been
affluent, but they supported vibrant, tight-knit, supportive
communities with cherished homes, schools, and small businesses.
Backed with Federal funding, these highways and other massive
infrastructure projects tore these neighborhoods apart and left them an
enduring legacy of exclusion and diminished opportunity. To be sure,
these infrastructure projects were intended to serve a purpose, and
they did serve a purpose--transportation, of a particular sort. For
families who could afford a car and a house in the suburbs, highways
were built to whisk people in and out of our urban downtowns, without
regard for the people and the communities remaining in those downtowns.
In the most benign cases, these projects were designed without care
or sensitivity to the people they left behind and excluded. In the
worst cases, the outcome of suppression and exclusion of people of
color was, in fact, deliberate.
It is time to confront our legacy of racism and exclusion in
infrastructure development and promote the next generation of
infrastructure that heals, unifies, and reconnects--an infrastructure
of inclusion, not division.
Thankfully, under President Biden's leadership and the direction of
Congress, we are doing just that. President Biden has affirmed and
reaffirmed his commitment to advancing equity and combating systemic
racism through two Executive orders.
The first Executive order, which was signed on the first day in his
office, said:
The Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive
approach to advancing equity for all, including people of
color and others who have been historically underserved,
marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty
and inequality. Affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights,
racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility
of the whole of our Government.
The Executive order he signed just last month acknowledges that we
have so much work to do. It says:
[M]embers of underserved communities--many of whom have
endured generations of discrimination and disinvestment--
still confront significant barriers to realizing the full
promise of our great Nation, and the Federal Government has a
responsibility to remove these barriers.
How to remove these barriers.
These barriers exist in a metaphoric sense, but sometimes they are
concrete--literally. Baltimore City has dealt with the enduring legacy
of its own ``highway to nowhere.'' This project is on the Franklin-
Mulberry corridor in West Baltimore. It started as a way to get drivers
out of the city quickly. Although the city never completed the project,
a 1.4-mile stretch of highway contained within a concrete canyon was
built and did irreparable harm to the surrounding communities: 971
homes and 61 businesses were destroyed. The project displaced
approximately 1,500 people, most of them Black. And for decades, the
city has lived with this eyesore and barrier to growth, opportunity,
and connection.
Let me be clear. Removing barriers like highways is not simply about
demolishing or removing infrastructure; it is about building the kind
of infrastructure our cities and communities need--the infrastructure
of connectivity and inclusion.
This means that instead of a highway for fast moving cars--or worse,
an unused highway--in the case of Baltimore's ``highway to nowhere,''
we need to restore neighborhood street grids, parks, sidewalks, and
bike trails--the infrastructure we need to reconnect people with
opportunities, with businesses, with education, and with healthcare.
I am proud that under President Biden's leadership on equity and the
surface transportation title of the bipartisan infrastructure law that
the Committee on Environment and Public Works negotiated, we now have a
Federal program specifically aimed at addressing the legacy of division
and exclusion from past infrastructure projects and supporting a new
and better future for hurt and marginalized communities. The Surface
Transportation Reauthorization Act, which the Environment and Public
Works Committee reported unanimously in May of 2021, includes the
Reconnecting Communities Program, later included in the final
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
I might say I am proud of the role that our Presiding Officer played
in the development of that law, the infrastructure law, as well as
Reconnecting Communities. I was proud to serve on the committee with
our Presiding Officer, and we are pleased to be an integral part in
making sure that legislation got to the President's desk.
[[Page S752]]
When we were negotiating the surface transportation reauthorization
bill, it was not easy to convince everyone that this would be a worthy
program. But just look at the overwhelming need across the country and
the expressions of interest in the first round of grant awards--more
than 350 applications nationwide--that far outpaced the amount of
funding available.
There are so many worthy projects across the country. They never
received enough planning and consideration through the Federal policy
framework that existed prior to President Biden's focus on equity, the
bipartisan infrastructure bill, and Reconnecting Communities.
I think the overwhelming need we are seeing across the country will
strongly support the program's continuation and expansion into one of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's signature initiatives.
Last month, after all the work of developing legislation and enacting
it into law and standing up the program, the Department of
Transportation awarded the very first round of Reconnecting Communities
grants.
I am proud that after all the work on the bipartisan infrastructure
law, Baltimore City was one of the first recipients of the Federal
funding under the Reconnecting Communities Program. Baltimore will
receive a $2 million grant for planning, to which the State of
Maryland, under Governor Moore, is adding $400,000.
This funding is going to start an important process of planning and
engagement with the people of Baltimore to develop a proposal, one that
I hope will move forward in the coming years with Federal support for
the construction of a project of great significance to Baltimore and
its future.
This award for Baltimore and the establishment of the Reconnecting
Communities Program is an important milestone in the history of our
Nation's approach to infrastructure. For far too long, our national
infrastructure policies contributed to tearing down communities while
we built our transportation networks. With the Reconnecting Communities
Program, our Federal infrastructure policy will no longer tear
communities apart. Rather, it must build up, reconnect, and support
them.
With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.
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