2 mayors on how and when new infrastructure law will help their cities

Judy Woodruff:

Let's turn now to two mayors who were at the White House this afternoon and are on the front lines of the implementation of this new law.

Nan Whaley is a Democrat serving Dayton, Ohio. And David Holt is a Republican leading Oklahoma City. They both co-chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors' effort to get the infrastructure bill passed.

And welcome to both of you. It's very good to have you both here in the studio. You're in town for the signing.

Mayor Whaley, let me start with you.

For people who haven't been following all the ins and outs of infrastructure, why is it going to make a difference? Why is this important to your constituents in Ohio?

Nan Whaley, Dayton mayor: Well, across the country, and particularly in Dayton, we see that we have been trying to invest in roads, bridges, ports, and broadband.

That is really the basic of what the big word infrastructure means. But, because we don't have federal funding and federal support, it takes a really long time, or bridges will just sit completely undone and become very dangerous. So this is a safety issue.

It creates really good union paying jobs. But also it makes people's ability to get to work a lot easier and not have to hit those potholes that they hate so much. In my community, particularly, we have had the highest satisfaction rate in 40 years. But the one thing that folks wanted a few months ago was better roads. This will make that happen.

And those are the kind of things people see in their community every day.

Judy Woodruff:

Fewer potholes can be a winner.

Mayor Holt, Oklahoma City, what about your constituents? What are you hearing from them that could make a difference here?

David Holt, Oklahoma City mayor: Well, our taxpayers send a lot of dollars to Washington, and the one thing they want to get back our core services and core infrastructure.

And that's what this package provides. And, specifically, in the package, I mean, 60 percent of it goes to roads and bridges. And just as Mayor Whaley was saying, I mean, that's a huge issue in Oklahoma City. We're a very sprawled Southwest city. We're 620 square miles. So it's always a struggle for us to keep up with our street resurfacing. This will hopefully assist that.

But it's just as much of a struggle to keep up with public transit and bring that to a level that people expect. And so the money in here for public transit is certainly appealing to us, and passenger rail.

The president is obviously known to be a big fan of Amtrak, so there's a big investment in passenger rail here. And specifically for Oklahoma City, it promises to connect us north to Kansas, which opens up the whole Northern United States for us, and really the whole Amtrak system.

So those are some of the things, but all this stuff is hopefully stuff, programs we can tap into, whether it's the broadband, or the water infrastructure, and so on.

Judy Woodruff:

Mayor Whaley, even people who like this, though, say it may take time to roll this out. How long are people going to have to wait to see tangible benefits from this legislation?

Nan Whaley:

Well, it is a long-term plan, right? It's not a year — a year infrastructure plan. This is over years.

But we will see. We will see, I think, movement in the 1st of next year and some road dollars being moved pretty quickly really through what we call metropolitan planning organizations. And so there are many projects in Dayton and communities across the country that are already on a list. They just couldn't get the funding to get it done.

And so now that the funding will be there to rebuild roads, to make sure that we can start doing real broadband in our communities, you will start to see smaller projects at the very beginning, and then larger projects really move.

In Ohio, particularly, I think you will see, for example, the Brent Spence Bridge that connects Ohio to Kentucky that's been talked about nationally done, — start moving really, really quickly, for example.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Mayor Holt, I mean, are people — are you bracing yourself that people are going to say, hey, wait a minute, when are we going to see something real coming out of this?

David Holt:

Well, sure.

But I'm in a business where we plant trees so our grandchildren have shade.

Nan Whaley:

Right. Right.

David Holt:

I'm uncomfortable with the pace of things. And we have got a lot of important initiatives in our city that we have passed over the last 30 years that people know it takes 10 or 15 years for those public works initiatives to finally open.

And so I think we're kind of conditioned to be ready for the wait, which is obviously going to be part of it. But I also know, look, if anybody gets impatient, I'm going to say look, you know, when these projects weren't opening? The last 10 years, when we were waiting on this passage.

Nan Whaley:

Right.

David Holt:

Now we know it's going to happen. It's just a matter of when.

Judy Woodruff:

The two of you are for it. Obviously, the White House was very much for it, the Democratic leadership.

But, Mayor Whaley, we know most members of the Ohio Republican delegation voted against this. I'm quoting Congressman Warren Davidson of Western Ohio. He said, among other things: "It's pork-laden, it's not narrowly tailored, which is what we need. It's reckless spending."

How do you answer that?

Nan Whaley:

Well, Senator Portman, an Ohio Republican, spoke today at the signing, and he really went through how the bipartisan action in the Senate happened, where we did have 69 votes for this in the Senate.

What happens, I think, that makes it so difficult in Washington, D.C., is, things get mired in partisanship; 63 percent of Americans support this infrastructure bill. It's a huge number. So it does have bipartisan support across the country.

What I think is frustrating for us, as mayors, to try to just keep on moving and get stuff done is that, a lot of times, when it comes to this town, everybody gets in their corners.

Now, I'm happy to see on this bill we actually saw bipartisan support, first time we have seen it in a really long time. And so we saw people like Senator Portman or Congressman Gonzalez in Ohio vote yes for this.

Judy Woodruff:

And, Mayor Holt, your party, the Republican Party, much more opposition.

Mayor Whaley is right. The polls were showing bipartisan support, but Republican support seems to be sliding. The entire Oklahoma delegation voted against it. And then you have the comments from former President Trump. He saying it's a non-infrastructure bill. He's very sad that RINOs, Republicans in name only, were for this. He says he's ashamed — that Republicans who voted for it should be ashamed of themselves.

David Holt:

Well, I mean, a lot did, I know not all, by any means.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell voted for this.

Nan Whaley:

Right.

David Holt:

We had a letter from 400 mayors, bipartisan mayors across the country in all 50 states supporting this. My state Chamber of Commerce supported this bill.

I mean, I get, as Nan said, that, like, there's politics in this city, and sort of people do things that have different motivations than just the face of the policy. But mayors have been consistent over 10 years. Mayors have come to that same White House in the Obama administration, in the Trump administration, and now in the Biden administration, seeking virtually the same thing, which was a major package, very similar, if not identical, to what we saw signed today.

And the politics change, but the needs don't. The policy doesn't. And ultimately, I'm just glad that it passed. I don't have any grudge against anyone who voted no, but I am very grateful to the many Republicans, obviously, the many Democrats who worked together to make sure it did pass and did something that needed to be done in this country, regardless of the policy win here.

They worked together. Republicans and Democrats worked together across these partisan lines to do something important. And I hope that this isn't the last time that happens.

Judy Woodruff:

And, just quickly to both of you, is this political opposition, do you think, going to affect your ability to implement this?

Nan Whaley:

I have noticed that, even when folks vote against it, they go and tell community members what came from Washington.

So I don't think it will actually affect implementation. We saw this with the American Rescue Plan money. As soon as it was passed, even folks that voted no came to Dayton to say what they gave to the community, which I find interesting. We really — we really want to make sure it gets done. So we're fine with that. So I don't think there will be much trouble on implementation.

Judy Woodruff:

Do you think there will be a problem?

David Holt:

No, no.

I mean, everybody will — these things, roads, and bridges, and transit, and passenger rail…

Nan Whaley:

Everyone will be at the ribbon-cutting.

(LAUGHTER)

David Holt:

Everybody likes these things. And it won't have anything to do with politics when it opens five years from now.

Nan Whaley:

No.

David Holt:

They will all be there. And that's OK.

Judy Woodruff:

Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio, Mayor David Holt of Oklahoma City, thank you both very much. We appreciate it.

Nan Whaley:

Thank you, Judy.

David Holt:

An honor to be with you. Thank you.