WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has chosen as supervisor of his $1 trillion infrastructure plan Mitch Landrieu, who as New Orleans mayor pushed the city into recovery after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.
Landrieu will be tasked with coordinating across federal agencies to work on roads, ports, bridges and airports, the White House said Sunday.
Biden is expected to sign the infrastructure bill into law on Monday.
“I am thankful to the president and honored to be tasked with coordinating the largest infrastructure investment in generations,” Landrieu said in the statement. “Our work will require strong partnerships across the government and with state and local leaders, business and labor to create good-paying jobs and rebuild America for the middle class.”
The infrastructure package is a historic investment by any measure, one that Biden compares in its breadth to the building of the interstate highway system in the last century or the transcontinental railroad the century before. He called it a “blue-collar blueprint to rebuilding America.”
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy released a statement backing Landrieu’s new position.
“Mitch Landrieu knows firsthand the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused on the Gulf Coast, and in turn, this devastation shows the importance, for Louisiana and the United States, of the investments the IIJA makes in coastal restoration, hardening the electrical grid and flood mitigation,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Having a Louisianan head this for the White House can only benefit our state.”
Sunday evening, Gov. John Bel Edwards released the following statement after President Joseph R. Biden named Mitch Landrieu as senior advisor and infrastructure coordinator.
Gov. Edwards said:
“As a former Louisiana Lieutenant Governor and Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu has a unique firsthand experience with the challenges aging infrastructure presents to our communities and also with how infrastructure improvements and projects can revitalize cities and towns. I applaud President Biden for selecting him to be the coordinator for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and look forward to working with him to address Louisiana’s many infrastructure needs head on.”
