[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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