Remarks by President Biden on the American Jobs Plan
MAY 06, 2021
Location: Lake Charles, Louisiana

1:07 P.M. CDT

     THE PRESIDENT:  Well, Mr. Mayor, Governor, thank you.  It’s good to be back in Lake Charles.  I’ve been here a number of times over the years as Senator and then as Vice President. 

The first time I came down here — with a guy named Russell Long, who I served with — I was 29 — please, sit down, everybody. 

I was 29 years old when I got elected, and I went to see Russell Long. And he said, “Son…” — I’d made my stops to all the senior senators, which was what you do in those days — and I — he said, “Son, sit down.  Sit down.”  And he pounded at his desk. 

And I sat down, and he said — he said, “How much money did you spend on your campaign?”  And I said, “Well, sir…” — and this is going to shock you.  I said, “About…” — I said, “A little over $285,000, but then I had to borrow some money and — to get through it.  And I just won, barely, by less than — less than a half a percentage point.” 

And he said, “Well…” — he said, “It’s a good thing you won.”  And I said, “How is that?”  He said, “Well…” — he said, “You got yourself a $38,000 deficit.”  (Laughter.)  And I said, “Yes, sir.”  And he said, “Well, if you hadn’t won, you’d just have a plain old deficit.  Now you can have a deficit party.”  (Laughter.)  God, I miss — he was amazing.  An amazing guy. 

And both of you are amazing.  Mr. Mayor, you’ve got a great city.  And as I said, I’ve been here — I’ve been here more than once, and it’s good to be back.  And I — it’s hard to believe that — that you got — you got hit as badly as you have within the timeframe you have.   And I used to spend some time with Randy; he got hit a little bit, but not like you did — not like you have.  And, Gov, you know, we have to build back.  We have to build back better. 

One of the things that — that I’m proud of is, in the first 100 days that I became President, we have created more jobs in that period of time than any administration in history.  But the way I look at that, that’s just the down payment getting us back with the American Recovery Act [Rescue Plan].  Just getting us back and getting people — a lot of that had to do with getting people vaccinated, getting 600 million doses of the — of the vaccine, and getting people in a position where it was available.

But now it’s about rebuilding America — rebuilding in a way that it has resilience.  And the folks who are going to rebuild it are those folks right over there: unions.  They’re going to rebuild it in a way that we’re going to provide good jobs.  (Applause.)

Well, look, it’s — as I said, it’s good to be back, Governor Edwards and Mayor Hunter.  And I also want to thank President Reine — the union president of AFL-CIO, head of the — head of the — there you are.  I couldn’t find you. 

And, folks, there’s a — when it comes to bridges and roads and the like, I’ve never seen a Republican or a Democrat road.  I just see roads.  

And, Mayor — I mean, you’re a Republican.  You wrote a newspaper article suggesting that we — along with the governor — the Democratic mayor of Shreveport, Mayor Perkins — as to why we need the American Jobs Plan and — which is what I’m here to talk about today: a once-in-a-generation investment in American — America itself — to create jobs, to modernize our bridges, our roads, our highways, our ports, our airports, our water pipes, our water projects, high-speed Internet, transmission lines, and sustainable housing — sustainable housing — jobs rebuilding the foundations of a strong, fair, and resilient — resilient, competitive economy. 

You know, I know the times have been tough here.  The damage of the hurricanes has been devastating.  The governor has already spoken to me; we’re talking with OMB and with our folks in — Republican and Democrats — in the Congress, because I believe — I believe you need the help.  I believe you need the help.  We’re going to try to make sure you get it. 

But the people of Louisiana always have picked themselves up, just like — just like America always picks itself up.  There’s no — there’s no quit in America.  There’s no quit in Louisiana, as I’ve observed. 

But that doesn’t mean the federal government — because it was local, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t help.  I promise you, we’re going to help you build back better than ever and more resilient.   And build back in a way that all we build is better able to withstand storms and — that are becoming more severe and more frequent than ever. 

I think we have to — you might have noticed I promised I would have a — I would have a climate forum for the world in Washington within 100 days.  Well, 40 heads of state showed up, from the largest countries in the world to some of the smallest.  We can’t deny it: There is a real change in the — in the weather.  And if we go 1.5 degrees warmer, we’re going to be in real trouble — at the point of no return. 

Matter of fact, a lot of what we’re going to have to build back now — in terms of infrastructure, we got to build back to a different standard, not to what it was.  It’s got to be better because the climate has changed enough now that it’s still going to rise two feet when the — when it rains.  It’s still going to — we got to build for what is needed now. 

And I promise you, we’re going to do that.  And we’re better prepa- — so we’re better prepared to withstand storms and — becoming more severe and more frequent. 

We’re standing here in the shadow of the I-10 bridge, which I’ve gone over several times myself in the past.  And it’s a perfect example of how we’ve neglected, as a nation, to invest in the future of our economy and the future of our people. 

You know, when the bridge was built in 1952, it was built to — there was nothing there — it was built to make sure that we, in fact, are able to — it was going to last for 50 years; that was 20 years ago.  It was built for 50 years.

The I-10 bridge was built to handle a daily traffic load of 37,000 crossings.  Well — but, today, every day, more than 80,000 — more than 80,000 cars and trucks cross over that bridge.  And it doesn’t have the modern safety features that bridges need to have now. 

You know, six lanes of the interstate narrow into four lanes of a bridge.  That’s a — that’s a recipe for disaster.  And that’s what — I’m sure you don’t need to tell the drivers around Lake Charles that it means traffic bottlenecks and delays, and that they’ll —  at the last inspection, this bridge was characterized as in “poor” condition.  And after decades of politicians studying it and talking about it, Governor Edwards is the one finally moving forward with a project to actually replace the bridge: one with six lanes, new interchanges, that’s safer and reduces congestion. 

And it shouldn’t be as hard — it shouldn’t be this hard to takes — or take so long to fix a bridge that’s this important.  It makes no sense. 

But the truth is, across the country, we have failed — we have failed to properly invest in infrastructure for a half a century.  The last four years, how many times did you say, “This is going to be Infrastructure Week”?  Well, I got so tired of hearing “Infrastructure Week” and nothing — nothing happened.  Nothing has happened. 

And across America, there are more than 45- — hear me now — 45,000 bridges that are structurally deficient.  Structurally deficient.  Every day, Americans cross these bridges 178 million times.  And they are structurally deficient. 

We’ve seen what happens when they deteriorate.  Remember a few years ago?  Two counties over in Mississippi had to shut down more than 60 bridges that were in poor condition.  Sixty bridges.  People in those communities were rerouted from 40 to 50 mile of detours with half-hour to hour delays.