Rep. Dan Meuser denounced President Biden Thursday for vowing to cover the cost of rebuilding the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, saying the promise was “outrageous” given the excess funds already available for infrastructure projects.
“It was kind of outrageous immediately for Biden to express in this tragedy the idea that he’s going to use federal funds to pay for the entirety,” Meuser (R-Pa.) told Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo in an interview.
“He doesn’t refer to it as the American taxpayer dollars on anything,” he said. “The first reaction — in fact the only reaction — just tends to be to spend.”
The Maryland Department of Transportation asked the Biden administration on Thursday for $60 million to cover “emergency activities,” including “mobilization, operations, and debris recovery,” according to a letter sent to the Federal Highway Administration, which was reported by Fox 45 Baltimore.
The MV Dali, a Singapore-flagged container ship bearing consumer goods, struck a pillar on the suspension bridge in the early hours of Tuesday, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River.
Six construction workers were killed in what federal and state investigators have said was an accident, potentially due to a loss of power on the ship.
The crash immediately shut down the Port of Baltimore, which imports and exports between $100 million and $200 million worth of goods, including cars, light trucks and sugar, and employs around 8,000 workers.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg rattled off some of the stats during a Wednesday press conference at the White House, one day after Biden, 81, promised to “move heaven and Earth” to rebuild the bridge.
“We’re going to rebuild that port together,” the president said. “It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort.”
Buttigieg said the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which opened in 1977, took five years to build but that “doesn’t mean it’ll take five years to replace.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested some of the cost would be covered by “insurance payments,” which the chairperson of Lloyd’s of London said Thursday would likely amount to a multibillion-dollar loss.
The international credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS pegged the cost at $4 billion in insurance claims.
“This was a tragedy — we all saw it. People lost their lives, and it is a very important port,” Meuser said on “Mornings with Maria.”
“But, you know, this was a Singapore-flagged ship, so what responsibility are they going to have?” he asked.
“At least Janet Yellen is thinking a little bit out of the box, rather than just spend the taxpayers’ money, and see what insurance funding there would be.”
The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package signed into law by Biden in November 2021 also included “$400 billion in excess,” according to Meuser, who added that was the reason he voted against the bill.
“Maryland, by the way, got almost $5 billion in addition to its standard [infrastructure bill] funding, so they’ve got the money,” he said.
Buttigieg told reporters that around $950 million in emergency funding was already available.
It remains unclear how much of that funding will be put toward rebuilding or keeping thousands of Port of Baltimore workers on the payroll.
The fallen bridge also cut off tens of thousands of drivers from traveling on Interstate 695, commonly known as the Baltimore Beltway.
