Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) says the federal government will pay the “lion’s share” of the cost of repairing Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge, which collapsed last week after being struck by a cargo ship.
Experts estimate it could cost between $400 million and $2 billion to repair the bridge, which spanned the outer Baltimore harbor, linking Hawkins Point, Baltimore and Dundalk, Md., and providing a hazmat route for trucks prohibited from driving through the area’s tunnels.
McConnell said Monday that it’s the responsibility of the federal government to cover the cost of the repairs, even though some Republicans have questioned whether the rest of the country needs to chip in to pay for the cleanup.
“In situations like that, whether it’s a hurricane in Florida or an accident like this, the federal government will step up and do the lion’s share of it,” McConnell told Louisville radio host Terry Meiners in an interview.
McConnell’s comments came after Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) called the idea of the federal government stepping in to pay for the disaster “outrageous.”
“It was kind of outrageous immediately for [President] Biden to express in this tragedy the idea that he’s going to use federal funds to pay for the entirety,” Meuser told Fox Business. “You know, he doesn’t refer to it as the American taxpayer dollars on anything. You know, the first reaction, in fact the only reaction, tends to be to spend.”
Biden plans to travel to Baltimore on Friday to survey the damage.
A substantial portion of the cost of rebuilding the project could come from the federal Highway Trust Fund and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure investment law Congress passed in 2021, but Congress may have to approve additional funding for the complicated and expensive project.
The downed bridge has disrupted traffic to one of the busiest ports in the nation, which handled more than 50 million tons of foreign cargo, including more than 750,000 cars and trucks, in 2023.