President Biden promised to put the full weight of the federal government behind getting the Port of Baltimore reopened after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, and just 11 weeks later, the port is fully reopened.
President Biden On The Port Of Baltimore Reopening
The President responded to the news that the port is fully reopened in a statement:
I made clear that my Administration would move heaven and earth to reopen the Port of Baltimore – one of our nation’s largest shipping hubs. Today, thanks to the tireless work by the men and women in the Unified Command, the full navigation channel is now open to all vessel traffic, allowing a full return of commerce to the Port of Baltimore.
Within minutes of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard arrived on the scene. They established a Unified Command the same day to support rescue and recovery operations, and worked with the Army Corps of Engineers around the clock to remove the wreckage from the channel. My Departments of Transportation and Labor and the Small Business Administration worked hand-in-hand with federal and state partners to limit supply chain impacts and keep costs down for Americans, and to support impacted workers and small businesses. I want to thank Governor Moore for his steadfast leadership, Mayor Scott, County Executive Olszewski, and the Maryland congressional delegation. The partnership between federal, state, and local governments, labor leaders like the longshoremen who keep this hub running, and the business community shows what we can get done when we work together.
Our hearts remain with the families of the victims of the bridge collapse, and we will continue to stand with the community throughout this period of recovery. Thank you to the people of Baltimore for showing us what it means to be Maryland tough and Baltimore strong. Baltimore can count on us to stick with them every step of the way, and we will continue to have your back until the bridge is rebuilt.
Sec. of Transportation Pete Buttigieg On How The Biden Administration Got The Port Reopened So Fast
During a call with reporters, Buttigieg told PoliticusUSA:
I want to note that the Biden Harris administration put us in a strong place to respond to a shock like this, largely due to the work of the White House Supply Chains, disruptions Task Force, the experiences that we have confronted over the last several years, especially in the midst of COVID led to measures that put us in a strong place to mitigate future disruptions to our supply chain and economy, even if we could never have guessed that this would be one of those disruptions through our innovative secure data sharing program known as FLOW which we created, originally to deal with those COVID disruptions and have since put to use in scenarios like the Red Sea disruptions, we have been routinely sharing data with public and private partners helping to monitor how cargo demand was shifting at places like the Port of New York and New Jersey and port of Savannah, which offered useful information to help supply chain actors adapt and mitigate in dealing with the impact on the East Coast supply chains.
And that collective immediate action helped us address the challenges of these recent weeks. Right now, we are redoubling our efforts to keep us prepared for future disruptions and support our national economy through the President’s Council on Supply Chain Resilience, we will continue to support the people of Baltimore and the workers of Baltimore and do everything that we can to support the community the state and the city of Baltimore and get that bridge rebuilt. We also continue to bear in mind that six families continue to grieve after those six construction workers who are out there improving that road lost their lives. And we recognize that there’s a long road ahead when it comes to the bridge reconstruction, but this is a key milestone, an extraordinary moment, something that’s coming, I think, much sooner than many of the observers who saw, that footage, that terrible night, could have anticipated, and is a credit to the teamwork of so many different players within across but certainly beyond the federal government.
Biden Shows What Competent Government Can Accomplish
Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden administration has consistently been effective. The American people never see stories about the Biden administration’s domestic failure to deliver on what it sets out to accomplish. In some ways, the corporate media’s obsession with covering drama and failure means that competent government is viewed as boring and ignored.
The Biden administration consistently makes government work, and effective governing should not be ignored by the voters, because the nation experienced the type of destruction and literal death that can be caused by incompetent government during the Trump administration.
The Port of Baltimore is open sooner than many people thought it could because Joe Biden gets the job done.
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