After the catastrophic crash of a container ship in Baltimore caused the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge to collapse, President Joe Biden jumped to his favorite response. He publicly pledged to donate more tax dollars to help rebuild Maryland's largest city.
“It is my intention that the federal government pays the full cost of rebuilding that bridge,” said the president, who is already facing a growing national debt of nearly $7 trillion. “I hope Congress will support my efforts.”
There is little question that the federal government has no moral or legal obligation to pay for the reconstruction of what was then the third longest bridge on Earth. As part of Interstate 695, the Baltimore Bridge was owned and operated by the Maryland Department of Transportation, and passengers who crossed the bridge paid a toll to the Maryland Department of Transportation. The federal government spends about $50 billion each year on highways, but Uncle Sam provides less than a quarter of that total, with the rest coming from state and local governments. ing.
That said, it's clear that the federal government has legitimate and self-interested reasons for wanting to help rebuild bridges. Considering the huge amount of global shipping that the Port of Baltimore facilitates, the total economic loss for the United States is estimated at $15 million per day. But the federal government can provide aid to Maryland in more impactful ways than just money. It can be out of the way, which is crucial in the heavily overregulated fields of environmental review and labor.
Justin Marlowe, a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago, said the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be between $1 billion and $5 billion, with labor costs making up a significant portion of the price tag and inflation on the original cost of $316 million. We predicted that there would be a significant increase from Adjustment dollar. But even worse is the potential construction time, which Benjamin W. Schaefer, professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, estimates could take up to 10 years, twice the original construction time. .
Rome may not have been built in a day, but the Empire State Building was built in one year. The Willis Tower (commonly known as the Sears Tower) in Chicago was built in less than three years, while the Chrysler Building in Manhattan was built in just two years. The ratio of building to bridge construction time may not be exactly 1:1, but more than half a century ago an American built the Astoria Megler Bridge in Oregon, which is even longer than the one in Baltimore, in less than four years. If only I could. , Why do bridges using today's technology take so long and cost so much money to build?
This is where the federal government can really help. The National Environmental Policy Act requires regulators to assess the environmental impacts of new large-scale projects like interstate bridges, but under NEPA, the president has to have unilateral authority to waive such environmental impact requirements; review. Biden blames the same development on the Baltimore bridge replacement that not only destroyed California's infamous bullet train going nowhere, but also destroyed 500,000 electric vehicle chargers that he personally ordered. We may be able to help you directly and quickly to avoid going to hell. It was constructed.
In addition, Mr. Biden could use parole powers under the Immigration and Nationality Act to admit foreign workers to fill critical labor shortages in a painfully tight domestic labor market. Rather than seize and release millions of unvetted illegal immigrants, as the Biden administration is currently doing, it will allow them to enter the country on H-1B visas, which are usually artificially capped. There may be special testing of specialized construction workers, such as underwater welders, who This is significantly lower than labor demand.
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While it is true that the executive branch can provide some funding without Congressional support, Congress should not actually fund the entire bill. Biden has already signed more than $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with more than $5 trillion earmarked for roads, bridges, transit, and water infrastructure through 2026. I want you to remember that you are there. The Highway Administration also has an additional $5 billion in funding from the Inflation Control Act that could be directed from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program and the Low Carbon Transportation Materials Grant.
The potential return on investment could be used as a selling point to Congress, but before the House of Peoples approves a new dime, the federal government must first do no harm to replace the Baltimore Bridge. You must do so. That means eliminating bad regulations, primarily environmental reviews, and promoting recovery so that economic losses do not continue to accumulate.
