President Barack Obama unveiled a new government center at the Port of Wilmington Thursday, aiming to connect the public and private sectors to further invest in infrastructure.
Flanked by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Obama signed an executive order, part of which establishes the “Build America Transportation Investment Center” housed under the Department of Transportation.
The center would guide these entities through different federal credit and loan programs already available and provide other technical assistance.
The president didn’t discuss the plan at length during his roughly 16 minute speech.
Obama also barely touched on the closed I-495 bridge behind him as he spoke, mostly pointing out partisan bickering over shoring up the Highway Trust Fund.
He says there shouldn’t be such a divide between the two major parties on the issue.
“It was a Republican, Dwight Eisenhower, who built the Interstate Highway System. Lincoln built the Transcontinental Railroad. Both parties historically have understood that investing in this country for the long run pays off,” said Obama.
Earlier this week, the Republican controlled House passed a temporary $10.8 billion deal to extend the trust fund’s solvency for another ten months.
Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) spoke briefly before the president criticizing the fix, with Obama echoing his words soon after.
“Jack said to call this a band aid is an insult to a band aid. That’s a pretty good line. I’m going to have to try that out,” said Obama.
Senators still need to approve the deal before it becomes official.
Americans seem to agree that the federal government should spend more on roads, bridges and mass transit systems according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. In a poll commissioned by the organization, 68 percent of Americans want further investment and 52 percent are willing to increase the national gas tax to do so.
AAA has lobbied Congress to do just that. The national gas tax stands at $0.18 a gallon and hasn’t been raised since 1993.
The executive order also establishes a working group co-chaired by Foxx and Lew to look at any barriers facing private infrastructure investment. Lew’s Treasury Department will also host a summit for developers and investors in September to highlight resources available to them.
The White House’s plan already has fans in the First State.
Delaware Transportation Secretary and former Obama field director Shailen Bhatt says it seems as though it would help cut through the federal bureaucracy when applying for grants or loans.
“You get into the [Department of Transportation] and all of a sudden it’s like there’s 12 people in 12 different agencies you’ve got to work with,” said Bhatt.
“So if it works in practice like it should work on paper, it should hopefully expedite some of these projects.”
Markell notes there are a lot of worldwide investors that could help bolster the country’s aging infrastructure, though the programs outlined under the center are nothing new.
“I think it’s more a matter of, you know, it could be complicated and I think [the president] is basically saying, ‘Let’s make sure that the federal government is facilitating as much of this investment as possible,’” said Markell.
Obama opened his remarks with comments on the downed Malaysia airliner in Ukraine, saying the US would offer any assistance it can to determine what happened.
His visit to Delaware last about two and a half hours. He was joined on the Air Force One flight from Washington DC by Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) and Rep. John Carney (D-Delaware). They arrived shortly before 12:30 p.m. and were greeted at the Delaware Air National Guard in New Castle by Markell, Attorney General Beau Biden and his wife, New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon and others.
Before heading to the Port of Wilmington, Obama made a side stop at Charcoal Pit on Wilmington’s Concord Pike. The president greeted diners there and ate with Tanei Benjamin. Benjamin wrote Obama last summer about her struggles as a single mother.
Following his speech, Obama and his motorcade returned to Delaware Air National Guard. Air Force One left just before 3:00 p.m., taking Obama to a fundraiser in New York Thursday night.