Four North Jersey House members hosted U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last week as he promoted the benefits of the infrastructure bill and heard of new initiatives to unclog the supply chain bottleneck.
Buttigieg started the tour on May 26 with Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Tom Malinowski at the Port of Newark. The lawmakers on the tour highlighted how investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will improve North Jersey’s infrastructure, including ports, roads, rails, and bridges, help build the Gateway Tunnel, address supply chain issues, create jobs, and boost our local economy.
“Remember, year after year, Congress after Congress, administration after administration, there was talk of getting something like this done and now it is actually happening,” said Buttigieg making remarks standing next to Gottheimer. “You look at New Jersey, again thanks to the support that we had from the Congressman and his colleagues, from the Senators who had backed this under the President (Biden)’s leadership, $8.1 billion coming to New Jersey just for the highway piece alone.”
Addressing Supply Chain
Gottheimer took the occasion to propose two new initiatives to address supply chain issues that are playing a major role in inflation in the U.S. The Bergen County lawmaker called for the Biden Administration to utilize the U.S. Transportation Command as a new “Strategic Shipping Reserve” to move critical goods in the oceans—as they are now doing with Operation Fly Formula to address the baby formula shortage in the U.S.
Additionally, Gottheimer called for ports like Newark that move goods faster to be given financial incentives, including to port operators, truckers, and the men and women of the International Longshoremen’s Association.
Global Shipping
“Tackling supply chain issues is a key part of my Affordability Agenda for Jersey that puts forward action we can take right now to help our families and small businesses through the COVID-driven impact on our economy by getting more money back into Jersey families’ pockets,” he said. “By addressing issues in our supply chain and by clawing investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill back to help us here, we’re working to end our reliance on major infrastructure that is decades old and puts our communities’ safety and our economy at risk.”
Gottheimer stressed the importance of the U.S. competing with the five major ocean carriers to boost the nation’s economy and bring more transparency to the global shipping process. None of the five major ocean carriers are American owned, one is owned by the Chinese, and they are currently controlling the global supply chain.
Malinowski focused his interaction with Buttigieg on supply chain legislation as well, including the House-passed America COMPETES Act, which would establish the Office of Manufacturing Security and Resilience at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Federal Partnership
The office would be tasked with identifying vulnerabilities that may disrupt the availability of critical goods, like PPE, pharmaceutical ingredients, and battery technologies; providing financial assistance to strengthen U.S. supply chains and domestic manufacturing of critical goods; and equipping the private sector with the tools and best practices needed to address supply chain weaknesses.
“After years of federal neglect of New Jersey’s infrastructure needs, we finally have a partner in Washington and the resources to match our ambitions,” said Malinowski.
Both men renewed their commitment to working closely together to accelerate progress on the Gateway Project, with the 7th Congressional District Congressman stating he looks “forward to working with Secretary Buttigieg to make Gateway move faster, and deliver support for all the other transit and highway projects we need to help our commuters.”
Sherrill Stop
Buttigieg then made his way to the 11th Congressional District, where Rep. Mikie Sherrill gave a tour the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Center at the County College of Morris (CCM) and hosted a town hall about workforce development initiatives.
Both discussed their support for provisions in both the new infrastructure law and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) that will help workers across the state get the skills they need for good-paying jobs, and help employers have access to well-trained workers.
“It was great to host Secretary Buttigieg here in NJ-11 to highlight how our colleges and local businesses are training a workforce that will meet employer’s needs by training students to meet the technological and innovative requirements of the 21st century,” said Rep. Sherrill. “Whether it’s passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or introducing provisions in WIOA and the National Defense Authorization Act, I am fighting hard to strengthen our state’s workforce and innovation sectors.”
Human Capital
The visit focused on how the infrastructure law took steps to expand workforce development programs and address labor shortages through the Career Skills Training Grants for clean energy job fields, that trains workers and connect them to employers in the solar, wind, and EV sectors; Transportation Workforce Outreach Program funding, which promotes awareness of career opportunities across the transportation sector; a Commercial Vehicle Apprenticeship pilot programs, which provides up to 3,000 apprentices younger than 21 with 120 hours of experience driving commercial motor vehicles; and Women in Trucking advisory boards, which supports the hiring and training of more female workers in the trucking industry. The lawmakers stressed the latter two are aimed at helping to ease supply chain disruptions that are raising prices in New Jersey.
“Where everyone here comes into play is the implementation of this law, the delivery of these resources that Congress, the President entrusted the departments like mine to make a reality,” said Buttigieg to the audience that included representatives from county colleges, manufacturing companies, local chambers of commerce, the healthcare sector, and labor.
“This will largely depend on the human capital, the skill sets, the workforce that will be called on that are increasingly demanding and sophisticated, whether they have college degrees or not. The truth is we will only succeed in delivering this investment if we leave no talent on the table, if every ounce of potential is realized.”
Minority Businesses
Additionally, Buttigieg attended a gathering hosted by Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. The Minority Business Participation Roundtable was focused on how to increase minority-owned business participation in federal infrastructure projects, particularly the Gateway Program and Hudson River Tunnel, with local minority business owners and advocates.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for minority-owned construction businesses to participate in the construction of the new Hudson River Tunnel project of the Gateway Program,” said Payne. “In addition, the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is going to need these businesses to repair roads, bridges, tunnels, and passenger rail systems nationwide. We must not let a lack of access to federal contracts deny them the right to these infrastructure projects.”
what else can you say except that mayor pete is an out of touch ignorant clown. Keep this man as far away from power as possible