Federal funding measure, which would cover full Key Bridge cost, hits barrier in Congress
BALTIMORE -- A federal spending bill that would have averted a looming government shutdown and included covering the full cost of a rebuilt Francis Scott Key Bridge has hit a snag in Congress.
Congress has a Friday deadline to approve the new spending to avoid a shutdown.
But after President-elect Donald Trump and Vice Present-elect JD Vance voiced opposition to the spending plan, House Major Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, confirmed that the stopgap funding measure announced on Tuesday is dead and the path forward is unclear, according to CBS News. Scalise said negotiations over funding are ongoing.
The spending measure would have allotted $110 billion for disaster relief, including the full cost of the Key Bridge construction.
According to CBS News, House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing pushback from his fellow Republicans, including Trump, over the billions of dollars in spending that have been added to the bill.
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin, both from Maryland, said Tuesday that the funding for the Key Bridge rebuild was wrapped into the latest federal spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, which would have kept the government operating until March 14.
"With the inclusion in the Continuing Resolution of our Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, Congress is now committed to covering the full cost of replacing the bridge," Sens. Van Hollen and Cardin said in a joint statement. "This will allow the bridge to be built as quickly as possible. Our provision also ensures that the federal taxpayers will be reimbursed through proceeds from insurance payments and litigation taken on by the Department of Justice, the Maryland Attorney General and others."
In August, the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) approved a $73 million contract for Kiewit Infrastructure Company to design and construct a new Key Bridge.
A newly built Key Bridge is estimated to cost nearly $2 billion and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2028.
Request for funding
In November, President Biden included money to rebuild the Key Bridge in a $100 billion disaster fund request he sent to Congress, an important step toward securing federal funding.
In the request, Biden asked for funds for the Department of Transportation to help rebuild roads and bridges across 40 states, including in Maryland.
The bridge collapse
On March 26, 2024, at around 1:30 a.m., the cargo ship Dali lost electrical power and crashed into the Key Bridge, knocking eight roadworkers, six of whom died, into the Patapsco River.
The workers who died in the bridge collapse were identified as 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, 24-year-old Carlos Hernandez, 49-year-old Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez and 35-year-old Jose Mynor Lopez.
The collapse blocked the main passageway for ships headed to the Port of Baltimore, closing one of the country's largest ports for weeks.
Biden's commitment to Baltimore
After a container ship crashed into the Key Bridge, causing it to collapse in March, Mr. Biden said he believed the federal government should pay for the cost of reconstruction.
A few days later, Mr. Biden approved a request for funding from Maryland Governor Wes Moore, allowing the state to receive an initial $60 million in emergency relief funding to recover debris from the Patapsco River.
"We continue to stress this is bigger than politics, this is bigger than an election cycle, this is bigger than partisan differences. This is about America's economy," Moore said after meeting with members of Congress in September.