Buttigieg Heads To Chicago Friday To Promote American Jobs Plan

CHICAGO, IL — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will visit Chicago on Friday to tour local transportation projects in the region to promote President Biden’s American Jobs Plan.

Buttigieg’s visit is at the behest of Illinois lawmakers, including U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and the state’s congressional representatives.

The details of Buttigieg’s itinerary are still being worked out. A transportation and infrastructure tour could include, among others:

• Chicago Regional Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) Program projects;
• Metra’s proposed “higher speed rail” segment from downtown Chicago to O’Hare Airport;
• Will County Intermodal Center, the largest inland port in North America;
• The I-80 bridge over the Des Plaines River, one of the worst-rated bridges for traffic congestion, age and maintenance;
• The Lion Electric Bus Factory currently under construction which will build 20,000 electric school buses per year;
• CTA’s bus fleet electrification plan; and
• Elgin-O’Hare Western Access project

“As we work towards modernizing our transit infrastructure as part of the American Jobs Plan, there is no state more ready to lead that effort than Illinois. Secretary Buttigieg is no stranger to the Midwest, and I’m honored to join my colleagues this week in welcoming him back to America’s finest transportation hub,” Congresswoman Marie Newman (IL-03) said in a written statement. “I look forward to showing him first-hand how the American Jobs Plan will not only create more efficient roads and railways in Chicago’s communities but also bring much-needed economic development and new good-paying, union jobs.”

In their letter sent to the transportation secretary last month, the delegation of lawmakers invited Buttigieg to learn more about the innovative plans for the future transit across the state. Chicago is home to Chicago Midway and O’Hare International Airports, the Chicago Transit Authority and Metra, as well as miles of freight lines, establishing Illinois as a critical transportation hub. Additional support and coordination at the federal level are also needed, the delegation said.

“Illinois has been a leader in transportation investment, but additional support at the federal level is desperately needed,” the letter stated.

The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework is promoted as making transformational and historic investments to the nation’s infrastructure, including transportation, clean water, universal broadband and clean power, as well as remediation of legacy pollution and resilience to the changing climate.

The framework will invest about two-thirds of the resources that President Biden proposed in his American Jobs Plan, creating thousands of good-paying jobs, proponents said.

The framework, touted to generate significant economic benefits and returns, will be financed through a combination of closing the tax gap, redirecting unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees, and the macroeconomic impact of infrastructure investment, the White House said in a statement.

Congress members return to Washington this week, where they are expected to begin crafting legislation based on the bipartisan infrastructure framework agreed to by President Biden and Senate negotiators last month. Although the agreement has set broad categories for investment, how and where the money will be spent still needs to be hammered out.

Last month’s letter to Buttigieg was signed by U.S. Representatives Marie Newman (IL-03), Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-04), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Bobby L. Rush (IL-01), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Bill Foster, Robin Kelly (IL-02), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Bradley S. Schneider (IL-10) and Sean Casten (IL-06). Additionally, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.