WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Republican governors rarely see eye to eye on anything.
Will the new infrastructure law be any different?
Federal officials and state governments have begun an ambitious partnership this year to implement a trillion-dollar upgrade to the nation’s infrastructure, money made available last year when Biden signed into law a new spending bill that Congress passed with bipartisan support.
It’s a complicated, multi-faceted process, officials say. And it’s one everyone agrees will require cooperation between the Democratic-led government and 28 Republican governors, many of whom will have (along with their Democratic counterparts) broad discretion about where to spend the money they receive from the federal government.
It’s a difficult feat to pull off when deep political polarization makes cross-aisle cooperation a rarity. But for Biden’s administration, it’ll be a necessity.
“There’s no way it can happen without great cooperation between federal, state and local officials,” said Mitch Landrieu, whom Biden tapped in November to lead the implementation of the infrastructure law. “It’s not functionally possible.”
In an interview, Landrieu emphasized that he thought the partnership between the federal government and state governments was off to a strong start, citing positive talks he’s had with Republican and Democratic governors alike.
And, indeed, investments in roads, bridges and other forms of physical infrastructure are generally seen as less controversial than most policy priorities, independent analysts say, a reason the law was able to gain the support of 19 GOP senators when it was passed last year.
But controversies have also begun bubbling to the surface. In December, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — a frequent Biden critic — sent a letter to state agencies telling them not to accept any money from the spending package that would “hinder or needlessly constrain” the state or set up an unfunded long-term cost.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has his own contentious relationship with the president, has criticized the amount of money his state received to repair bridges as being insufficient. And earlier this month, 16 GOP governors penned a letter to Biden warning him to “not attempt to push a social agenda through hard infrastructure investments.”
One of the governors who signed the letter, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, said in an interview that he was frustrated by guidance from the Federal Highway Administration in December directing states to prioritize the repair of existing highways, rather than expanding them.
“That might be what the Rust Belt needs, it might be what big cities need, but it’s not what those of us that are growing dramatically, like we are in South Carolina, need,” McMaster said.
The FHWA memo was only guidance from the federal government, and McMaster and other Republican governors say they plan to continue talking with White House officials to gain more flexibility.
But McMaster said the experience is already souring him on the infrastructure law, arguing that federal officials are misinterpreting how the law was originally written. If the directive isn’t changed, he said, “it would be grounds for a lawsuit.”
“It turned out, given this preview of what’s coming, that this is not bipartisan at all,” McMaster said. “I bet you could ask the states what they think about it, and they would tell you it’s contrary to their needs.”
FHWA confirmed that it received a Jan. 12 letter from the South Carolina Department of Transportation and said that the agency was reviewing all comments submitted “on an ongoing basis as we implement the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has also repeatedly criticized the implementation of the law.
When the U.S. Department of Transportation announced this month how much states would receive for bridge repair under the law and Florida’s funding lagged other states, DeSantis accused the Biden administration of “short-changing Florida yet again” and attempting to “punish states that are succeeding.”
DeSantis’ administration questioned how Connecticut, for example, was set to receive more than $560 million for bridge repair compared to Florida’s $245 million despite a smaller population and a lower number of bridges identified as in poor condition.
A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration, the agency overseeing distribution of the bridge funds, said the allotments were the result of a congressionally mandated formula and that the dollar amount per state “is not based on the count of bridges in poor or fair condition, but rather it is based on the cost of replacing or rehabilitating those bridges, respectively.”
A similar scenario played out the following week when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced the projects it would fund through the law.
The $1.1 billion slated for Everglades preservation in Florida for 2022 dwarfed any other project in the nation, but DeSantis and the state’s congressional Republicans blasted it as insufficient because it did not include funding for the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir portion of the project.
Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, said the White House would try to accommodate the requests from governors as best they can within the confines of the way the law was written.
“When you’re dealing with 50 states, there’s a lot of different ways to do stuff,” he said. “And we’re going to try and work with them to the extent we can.”
Republican governors have resisted federal Democratic-led programs before, most notably after President Barack Obama in 2010 signed into law a new health care bill that expanded access to Medicaid. A court ruling, however, allowed states to decline the federal money to expand health insurance access, which a dozen of them have continued to do more than a decade later.
But Landrieu insists that money meant to upgrade physical infrastructure is different and added that some of the early criticism doesn’t faze him. He’s spoken with 43 governors in the 75 days since his appointment, he said, describing those conversations as receptive.
Not every governor, however, has called him back: Landrieu says he has called DeSantis “a couple of times” but has yet to talk to the governor, though he said he did speak with his chief of staff.
“Governors are busy, and it’s perfectly fine to reach out through their chief of staff,” he said.
Andy Winkler, director of housing and infrastructure projects at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, said Landrieu’s outreach to Republican officials is crucial because the law will hand over significant spending authority to state and local governments.
“There’s only a handful of pots of money that the administration is fully in control over, so if they don’t work with folks well none of their key priorities are going to be advanced,” Winkler said.
“I think it’s important to strike that open tone, that optimistic tone that this is a win for the country if we work together to put that money into impactful projects,” he added.
Landrieu developed a reputation for working well with Republican officials in Louisiana as the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, Winkler said.
Landrieu was among the Biden administration officials — along with the president and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who addressed the U.S. Conference of Mayors about the infrastructure law during the organization’s January meeting in Washington.
“I think that was important to start the demystification process,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, president of the conference and one of the few Republicans in charge of a major city.
“I think, look, you know, for me as a mayor, I’m willing to work with anybody who’s willing to help my residents, bottom line,” Suarez said. “And I think, you know, the White House knows that.”
Landrieu in January sent all 50 governors a letter asking them to appoint an infrastructure coordinator in their states, someone responsible for helping implement the law across a multitude of areas, including increasing broadband internet access and replacing water pipes. The response has been good so far, said.
“Whatever challenges we have, whether they be politically or ideologically, the mission is to get this done,” he said. “We’re going to figure out a way to do it come hell or high water.”
He added: “I would just caution people not to get pulled into Washington-speak about arguing what color red the red light is. There’s a tendency here to default to no. I’m just saying the mayors and the governors of this country want to get to ‘yes,’ and we’re here to work with them as partners to get this done.”
