BALTIMORE — With a bipartisan infrastructure deal at stake on Capitol Hill, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to one of the busiest ports in the country here at the Port of Baltimore to talk about how the $17 billion worth of upgrades to the nation’s ports could pay off.
“What goes on at this port impacts people who live a thousand miles or more from any coast because their goods, their exports whether its agricultural or its that farm equipment that we saw---that depends on being able to move it through a place like this,” said the secretary. “and we also have to remember for all of the creativity and innovation that’s going on here, there’s a lot of other places that are in a race with us to do just the same thing.”
The port generates 15,000 direct jobs and is tied to 139,000 others in the state, and Governor Larry Hogan welcomes any bid to make a good thing better.
“The Port of Baltimore stands to be one of the great beneficiaries of a great, new federal infrastructure package,” said Hogan. “Mr. Secretary, you truly could not have picked a better stop for your first port visit.”
The transportation secretary says the proposed deal could also help American manufacturers sell their goods by removing the bottlenecks in the supply chain created by the ongoing pandemic, as well as helping the nation’s economy.
“Jobs is the point of all of this,” said Buttigieg. “Right here in Baltimore, we’ve seen the work and the workers who create opportunity and prosperity for their neighbors and for their communities and for their families, and we want to be able to continue supporting those jobs with infrastructure both on and beyond the ports.”
