Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones were among five Missouri officials who joined a letter imploring Congress to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework Tuesday.
The United States Conference of Mayors letter — signed by more than 350 mayors across the country — asked leaders in both parties and chambers to “take immediate action” on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.
“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework is crucial to making meaningful progress on one of the most pressing and unifying challenges facing our country — the need for comprehensive investment in public transportation; roads; bridges; passenger and freight rail; drinking water and wastewater; clean energy and electrification; legacy pollution cleanup; cyber-attack and extreme weather-resiliency; and universal broadband access,” the mayors said.
Aside from Jones and Lucas, Florissant Mayor Timothy J. Lowery, Independence Mayor Eileen Weir, and Wentzville Mayor Nick Guccione signed the letter. Every state is represented in the letter.
Missouri Mayors are working hard at the state and federal levels to fund critical infrastructure @CityOfIndepMO @QuintonLucasKC @usmayors @Mocities https://t.co/vAXjGFkOSc
— Eileen Weir (@weirIndep4) July 13, 2021
The wide-ranging infrastructure plan tackles climate change, electric vehicles, and broadband issues, among other things. While it’s a bipartisan effort, many Republicans have expressed concerns over pay-fors and tax increases as well as a boost to the IRS’s enforcement budget.
The mayors also asked for funding allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic not to be redirected or repurposed and requested continued support for communities still struggling from the health crisis.
“Committing to more localism can be accomplished by investing directly in our cities through existing and proven delivery systems such as Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Community Development Block Grants, and Surface Transportation Block Grants,” the mayors said.
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Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
