Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked congressional appropriators for more emergency funding in the wake of last month’s bridge collapse in Baltimore, saying it provides a critical buffer against aging infrastructure and climate change.
The Federal Highway Administration released about $60 million from the Emergency Relief Fund to local officials shortly after the Francis Scott Key Bridge since a runaway cargo ship collided with the bridge and caused the collapse March 26.
The fund has about $950 million in it, but it has about a $2 billion backlog of funding requests, Buttigieg said at a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
Not all of those requests will be covered at once. DOT typically reimburses states and local governments after they spend money on emergency repairs.
