Biden promises ongoing federal aid at Baltimore Key Bridge until projects are complete

BALTIMORE, MD — President Joe Biden reiterated in Baltimore Friday that the federal government will provide total assistance to the city as it cleans up and rebuilds the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The president’s trip on Friday comes less than two weeks after the March 26 collapse and roughly a month after he visited East Palestine, Ohio, the site of the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment. The Biden White House was heavily criticized for waiting an entire year before traveling to East Palestine, where residents and local officials are still grappling with the economic and potential health fallout of the Norfolk Southern accident.

The president opened his remarks Friday by noting that his father was born and raised in Baltimore before detailing his own relationship with grief to the families of the gathered victims.

“I’m here to say your nation has your back and I mean it. Your nation has your back,” he stated. “The damage is devastating. and our hearts are still breaking.”

“We are not the same but I know a little bit about what it’s like to lose a piece of your soul,” Biden continued. “I can tell you now from personal experience, the day is going to come where the memory of your loved one as you walk by that park or the church or something that you shared together — it’s going to bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It’s going to happen. It’s going to take a while, but I promise you it will happen, and that’s where you know you’re gonna be able to make it.”

Before speaking, the president received an aerial tour of the wreckage. The Dali, the Singaporean container ship responsible for the collapse, is still on site with its entire crew still onboard, as the investigation into the incident progresses.

Biden has made investments allocated through the bipartisan infrastructure law, American Rescue Plan, and CHIPS and Science Act core pillars of his economic messaging ahead of the 2024 general election, and the president vowed Friday to provide Baltimore assistance for the duration of the bridge rebuilding process.

“My vow is that we will not rest until the cement has dried and the entirety of a new bridge has been raised,” he declared. “We’re going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible, and we’re going to do so with union labor and American steel.”

Challenges remain, however, getting an aid package approved through the GOP-led House where the House Freedom Caucus Friday listed demands, including a reversal of the president’s pause in liquefied natural gas exports, to secure funding for the rebuild of the bridge.

The president previously sent multiple high-ranking administration officials to Baltimore to liaise with local officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Small Business Administration Administrator Isabel Guzman, in the immediate aftermath of the collision.

Buttigieg joined Biden and Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) on Friday for an operational briefing on the cleanup from the Army Corps of Engineers.

“I am particularly thankful for the leadership of the President of the United States, President Biden, who from day one, set us up in a way that we could work swiftly and collaboratively across federal agencies, and in partnership with state and local authorities with labor and the private sector, all with the same goals, to get the port back open and the bridge back up,” Buttigieg stated Friday, noting that “Baltimore will come back stronger than ever before.”

After his remarks, Biden held a private meeting with family members of the six individuals killed in the collapse.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre commended those workers during Thursday’s press briefing, claiming they were “laboring in the middle of the night to repair potholes on a bridge that tens of thousands of travelers crossed every day.”

“The president, as he does, and he understands what it means for people to have loss, will be there for those families,” she added. “Just like he’ll certainly be there for the people who lost lives on that night.”

The Biden administration is also taking steps to ease economic concerns in Baltimore and across the Eastern seaboard until no major supply chain disruptions. Though the river is expected to be cleared by the end of the month, the Port of Baltimore is losing some $15 million for every day that normal operations remain on pause, with more than 20,000 workers directly impacted.

The Department of Labor and top White House staff, including chief of staff Jeff Zients, have reached out to Amazon, Home Depot, Port of Baltimore operator Ports America, and other regional employers urging them not to cut payrolls in the wake of the collapse.

Biden’s supply chain task force is working with railroad operators and the ports to divert vessels and set up new service lines to move cargo along the coast. The SBA is also making low-interest disaster loan assistance available to Baltimore businesses and operating recovery centers on the ground.

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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.