Biden Vows US Will Pay to Rebuild Collapsed Baltimore Bridge

Biden Vows Federal Government Will Pay to Rebuild Collapsed Key Bridge

President Biden said Tuesday that he wants the federal government to pay for the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed early this morning after being struck by a container ship.

"It's my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge," Biden said in an appearance at the White House. "And I expect the Congress to support my effort.”

Biden added that while the repair process “is going to take some time,” the federal government is going to support the people of Baltimore “every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt.”

In the immediate aftermath of the bridge collapse, Biden pledged to Baltimore residents that he would send “all the federal resources they need as we respond to this emergency, and I mean all the federal resources.”

The Coast Guard is still searching for six missing road workers who were on the bridge when it collapsed. When the search and rescue phase of the response is completed, the investigation into the crash will be led by the National Transportation Safety Board.

A major artery in the Northeast: The Francis Scott Key bridge was built between 1972 and 1977, at a cost of $141 million, or roughly $780 million in current dollars. With four lanes running 1.6 miles over the Patapsco River, southeast of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the bridge carried more than 30,000 cars per day, totaling 11.3 million crossings per year.

The collapsed bridge is now blocking access to the Port of Baltimore, which sees the largest volume of automotive imports and exports in the U.S. and is the ninth-largest port overall in the country. In 2023, the port processed 52.3 million tons of cargo, with a value of roughly $80 billion, according to data from the state of Maryland. Port activities sustain about 15,000 jobs directly and more than 139,000 jobs indirectly, generating almost $3.3 billion in total personal income for the region.

Speaking to reporters in Baltimore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned that bridge collapse will affect commerce broadly. “There is no question that this will be a major and protracted impact to supply chains,” he said. He also said that it is “too soon to offer estimates on what it will take to clear the channel and reopen the port.”

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin said that reopening the blocked channel to shipping will be the initial focus. “It affects many, many jobs. It affects not only jobs here in Maryland, but around the country and world,” he said at a press conference. “So our next priority is to make sure we get that channel opened and then we also need to fix and replace the bridge for the surface transportation.”

Infrastructure law could play a role: CNN’s Katie Lobosco reports that some funding for the reconstruction project could come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which Biden signed into law in the fall of 2021. The law provides $110 billion for road and bridge projects, with funding stretching into 2026. Lobosco notes that after a major bridge collapse in Pittsburgh in 2022, money provided by the infrastructure law helped rebuild the structure in less than a year.

Even so, Congress may be asked to provide supplemental funding for the reconstruction project, in whole or in part. And Senior White House adviser Tom Perez told reporters that the administration has not ruled out the possibility that some of the costs associated with rebuilding the bridge could be recovered through “litigation or other efforts” focused on parties involved in the crash.

BlackRock CEO Warns of a Retirement Crisis

Larry Fink, the billionaire chairman and CEO of investing giant BlackRock, warns in a newly published annual letter to shareholders that it’s time to rethink retirement savings in aging countries around the world, including the United States.

“Today in America,” Fink writes, “the retirement message that the government and companies tell their workers is effectively: ‘You’re on your own.’ And before my generation fully disappears from positions of corporate and political leadership, we have an obligation to change that.”

Fink says that a Census Bureau survey released in 2022 found that nearly half of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 reported no savings in personal retirement accounts. He traces some roots of the current problems back more than four decades, when employers began shifting from pensions, known as defined-benefit plans, to options like 401(k)s, known as defined contribution plans. “Put simply, the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution has been, for most people, a shift from financial certainty to financial uncertainty,” he writes.

He adds that Social Security faces huge demographic challenges and is projected to be unable to pay full benefits under the existing structure by 2034. And, he argues, that necessitates a national conversation around what the average retirement age should be when many people are living past 90. “No one should have to work longer than they want to,” he writes. “But I do think it’s a bit crazy that our anchor idea for the right retirement age — 65 years old — originates from the time of the Ottoman Empire.”

He goes on to suggest that “rather than pushing back when people receive retirement benefits, perhaps there’s a more politically palatable idea,” namely encouraging people to stay in the workforce longer.

Fink suggests that the “retirement crisis” in America calls for government and business leaders to come together on a plan to modernize the existing system and promote the financial security of future generations as they age.

While he acknowledges that he doesn’t have all the answers, his letter centers on the power of capital markets to solve problems and spur growth — an unsurprising theme coming from the leader of the world’s largest money manager, overseeing some $10 trillion in assets. He argues that expanding access to investing and making the process simpler can help address Americans’ lack of retirement savings.

He also proposes broadly establishing new retirement systems like those in Australia or some U.S. states in which employers must contribute to a retirement account for every employee, even gig or part-time workers. And he indicates that BlackRock will introduce a system that helps turn 401(k) investments into more predictable income streams like those from a paycheck or pension.

Addressing infrastructure needs: As he writes about the power of capital markets, Fink also argues that infrastructure financing will evolve in the years ahead. “In the U.S., people tend to think of infrastructure as a government endeavor, something built with taxpayer funds,” he says. But “that won’t be the primary way infrastructure is built in the mid-21st Century. … The future of infrastructure is public-private partnership.”

BlackRock recently announced a $12.5 billion deal to buy fund manager Global Infrastructure Partners, making its biggest acquisition in years a big bet on infrastructure investments.

Fink argues that government debt burdens will mean that both public and private funds will have to be used for infrastructure investments. He calls the U.S. debt picture “more urgent than I can ever remember,” due not only to the amount of debt owed but also to higher interest rates.

“Why is this debt a problem now? Because historically, America has paid for old debt by issuing new debt in the form of Treasury securities,” Fink writes. “It’s a workable strategy so long as people want to buy those securities — but going forward, the U.S. cannot take for granted that investors will want to buy them in such volume or at the premium they currently do.”

Fink argues that dealing with the debt will take more than tax increases or spending cuts:

The CEO says that 3% annual growth would keep the debt-to-GDP ratio at 120% — “high, but reasonable,” he says, though he admits that hitting that growth target would also be “a very tall order.”

Why it matters: Fink’s letter may be obviously self-serving on multiple points — it’s a letter to investors, after all, not just some essay or white paper — but as Andrew Ross Sorkin notes at The New York Times, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock “commands attention from companies and governments, helping spearhead movements like socially driven business and the need for companies to fight climate change.”

Fiscal News Roundup

Views and Analysis

• House GOP Resignations Send a Very Clear Message – Patricia Lopez, Bloomberg
• Why the Tables Turned, Leaving Conservatives as Loser in Spending Fight – Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell, The Hill
• No, Donald Trump, Migrants Aren’t ‘Killing’ Social Security and Medicare – Glenn Kessler, Washington Post
• Obamacare Is in Grave Danger, Again – Paul Krugman, New York Times
• This State Isn’t Waiting for Biden to Negotiate Drug Prices – Elisabeth Rosenthal, Washington Post
• America Has a Housing Problem. New Dems Have a Solution – Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), The Hill
• The Great Rates Descent Will Be Nasty, Brutish and Long – John Authers et al, Bloomberg