Biden administration touts infrastructure law in addressing supply chain issues, increasing goods

The Biden administration touted its infrastructure law and other previously allocated funding in addressing supply chain issues and increasing goods in Michigan in an op-ed published Thursday.

White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who will be in the state on Thursday, penned an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press noting how federal funding was going toward improving infrastructure in the state, coming on the same day that the Biden administration announced $368 million in rail infrastructure improvements in a handful of states, including Michigan.

Biden administration officials touted more than $21 million for the Great Lakes Central Railroad that will help replace bridges and add over four miles of rail in addition to a separate $8.7 million grant for the state’s Department of Transportation and West Michigan Railroad Company for Southwest Michigan rail improvements. 

Both of those grants are a part of the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grants announced Thursday, which are included in funding that was previously allocated.

But the two officials also touted other infrastructure investments made through the president’s budget and the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, including $3.7 million devoted to Alpena, Mich. for updating a boat slip. 

“Only six months after President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are making historic investments across the country, and Michiganders are seeing the impact. Beyond fixing the broken links in our supply chains and lowering costs, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also connecting people to jobs and resources, and sparking new domestic manufacturing,” the two wrote.

Their op-ed comes as the administration seeks to show that it is continuing to tackle supply chain issues, set off by the COVID-19 pandemic and further exacerbated by the Russian invasion in Ukraine. The nation is also grappling with inflation that has reached a 40-year high.