As infrastructure money flows, Buttigieg’s choices will shape U.S. for generations

Most transportation money is allocated to states, but the infrastructure law offers new discretion and billions of dollars to the U.S. DOT

The Washington Post By Ian Duncan October 13, 2022

FERNLEY, Nev. — Roy Edgington Jr. was nervous to take a call from a member of the president’s Cabinet. But when the mayor of this western Nevada city learned the transportation secretary had been a mayor himself, he began to feel at ease: The only difference between two mayors, he reasoned, was the number of zeros they wrote on their checks. And right now, Fernley was looking to Washington for a lot of zeros. This desert city of 23,000 outside Reno wanted $25 million for a road and bridge — complete with bike lanes — over a rail line, which local leaders hoped would spur activity at a logistics hub and spare commuters from crippling traffic. Pete Buttigieg called to congratulate the city on winning the grant. A week later, he presented Edgington, whose mayoral post is nonpartisan, with an oversized check.

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