Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she told Maryland Gov. Wes Moore this week that she was displeased with a new, costly estimate to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Still, in an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday, she stopped short of saying she’d take action to roll back the federal government’s commitment to fully fund the rebuild.
The in-person meeting on Capitol Hill between Capito and Moore, a Democrat, happened Tuesday, the day after POLITICO first reported that the cost to replace the bridge could be as much as $5.2 billion.
That estimate is more than twice the $1.7 billion-$1.9 billion Moore told Congress it could cost when he was asked lawmakers in 2024 to foot the entire cost of the rebuild. The federal match in such projects is typically 90 percent. Capito, who leads the panel with oversight of federal bridges and highways, said she made sure the governor understood she was not happy with the new number.
