Pelosi ties bridge collapse to sequester
The day after a four-lane interstate bridge in Washington state collapsed, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is using the incident to blame Republicans for the "dangerous consequences" of the sequestration spending cuts that started in March.
"For 62 days, the American people have waited for House Republicans to move forward with the budget process and replace the devastating sequester cuts that are slashing into our country's safety net, national security, and public infrastructure," Pelosi's office said in a press release. "Yesterday, an Interstate 5 bridge north of Seattle collapsed after an oversized truck hit the structure. Thankfully, no one was killed. But the collapse of the bridge--long-rated 'functionally obsolete'--highlights the dangerous consequences of our failure to repair and invest our roads and bridges."
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The release noted that because of the sequester cuts, the Transportation Department has had to cut about $960 million from highway funds used to respond to infrastructure issues, even though more than 68,000 bridges across the country are rated "structurally deficient."
"Seven times House Republicans have voted against a Democratic balanced budget plan that would replace the sequester cuts with immediate investments in our transportation priorities through a bipartisan infrastructure bank that will help repair crumbling roads, bridges, and transit across the country," it says.
A Federal Highway Administration database does list the Washington bridge as being "functionally obsolete," meaning its design is outdated. However, it was not "structurally deficient," and and officials have blamed its collapse on an oversized load on a truck. In fact, the bridge was inspected twice last year and underwent repairs.
The 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 Infrastructure Report Card gives the state of bridges in the U.S. a C+, noting that one in nine of the nation's bridges are rated as structurally deficient.
