President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced $3 billion in funding meant to help reconnect communities split by highways and other infrastructure projects decades ago as he continues his post-State of the Union campaign blitz in several crucial battleground states.
The $3.3 billion, funded by the infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act signed by Biden earlier in his term, will go toward projects across 40 states, according to the White House.
Announcing the funding during a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Biden said his administration is “making decisions to transform your lives decades to come – and we’re going it all across America.”
The projects will “increase access to health care, schools, jobs, places of worship, and other essential services and opportunities, and will strengthen communities by covering highways with public spaces, creating new transit routes, adding sidewalks, bridges, bike lanes, and more,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Special attention will be paid to areas that were split by the construction of the federal highway system decades ago.
Such projects decimated predominantly Black and brown communities across the country, which were in some cases leveled completely to make space for roads and highways. Other communities were essentially cut off from the rest of the city by the projects.
Biden’s campaign visit to Milwaukee on Wednesday was the latest in a series of post-State of the Union events across several crucial 2024 battleground states, and the first since Biden clinched the Democratic nomination for president after a slate of primary victories on Tuesday. He also visited Pennsylvania on Friday and Georgia over the weekend.
Milwaukee will host the Republican National Convention in July, where former…
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