Vice President Kamala Harris visited Columbus union Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 189 to promote the infrastructure package. Credit: Yuri Gripas/ABACAPRESS.COM via TNS
Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Columbus Friday to promote President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package and the impact it will have on Ohioans.
According to the White House, Ohio is projected to receive over $9 billion for highway improvements and $483 million for bridge repair and replacement over five years. The state is also projected to receive $100 million for expanded broadband internet, $253 million for airport improvements, over $1 billion for public transportation and $1.4 billion to improve water infrastructure.
Walsh and Harris toured the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 189 union hall on Kinnear Road and spoke with plumbing apprentices.
“This bipartisan infrastructure law will make the most significant investment to fix our roads and bridges in 70 years,” Harris said in her remarks. “The impact will be generational.”
This marks Harris’ first visit to Columbus. Biden visited Ohio State’s campus in March to tout the American Rescue Plan, which aimed to stimulate post-COVID-19-shutdown economic recovery.
Harris’ visit came after a House vote on a second infrastructure package — the Build Back Better Act — a $1.75 trillion package, according to the White House website.
In her opening remarks, Harris hailed the bipartisanship which went into the bill’s passage, thanking several lawmakers.
“Because of our work together, America is moving forward,” Harris said. “I want to thank Rep. Joyce Beatty, whose time on the Congressional Black Caucus helped to make this possible, as well as Sen. Sherrod Brown, who I served with in the Senate, and Sen. Rob Portman, who was the lead Republican negotiator on this bill.”
The law had the support of all but six Democrats in the U.S. House of Representative — with 13 Republicans voting to approve it alongside them.
In a statement, Ohio Republican Party chairman Bob Paduchik called Harris’ visit a publicity stunt that distracts from other issues.
“Vice President Harris is proving herself to be an empty suit whose list of accomplishments could be written on a grain of empty sand,” Paduchik said. “Instead of attempting to take a political victory lap on taxpayers’ dime and reclaim any semblance of credibility, she should be doing her job and fixing the unprecedented border crisis that she continues to fuel.”
Harris ended her remarks by referencing American ingenuity in the face of crisis.
“We are determined to do good things — even when it’s difficult, especially when it’s difficult,” Harris said. “In the context of history, during the Civil War we built the Transcontinental Railroad. We created the Interstate Highway System during the Cold War. In America, we have the courage to see beyond a crisis.”
