Biden highlights infrastructure spending at century-old train tunnel due for replacement

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• Geoff Bennett:

  President Biden was in Baltimore today to highlight a major railway tunnel reconstruction project that will be paid for in part by the bipartisan infrastructure law.

  The project will replace a century-old tunnel connecting Philadelphia and Washington, a familiar route for the president, who spent years as a senator commuting via Amtrak from Delaware to the U.S. Capitol.

  Following all of this closely in Baltimore is White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez.

  So, Laura, tell us about President Biden's announcement today in Baltimore.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Yes, Geoff, President Biden was out here today talking about improvements that will be made to what is the largest bottleneck for commuters along the Northeast Corridor.

  And what this Baltimore rail tunnel project is going to do is, it will replace 150-year-old Baltimore Potomac Tunnel. It's also going to create around 30,000 jobs, and it will increase train speeds from 30 miles per hour to 100 miles per hour. It could also save commuters nearly 450,000 hours per year as they commute along this railway.

  Now the tunnel is going to be renamed after the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who was born in Maryland. And, in total, the entire project is going to cost some $6 billion. More than $4 billion of that is going to be coming from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So, President Biden is at the halfway mark of his first term.

  As you have previously reported, the White House is now focusing on implementing the massive pieces of all the legislation he's signed into law. Tell us more about that strategy, now that it's being put into practice.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  So, the next few years, Geoff, are going to be focused on implementing and selling the laws that the president passed during the first two years of his presidency.

  And President Biden, just like in 20 — during his 2020 presidential campaign, as well as during the first half of his term, he today talked about how the country was going to compete with China's economic rise.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: We went through four decades where we exported jobs and imported product. We're exporting product and importing jobs now.

  (APPLAUSE)

• President Joe Biden:

  For too long, we have talked about asserting America's leadership and building the best economy in the world. Well, to have the best economy in the world, you have to have the best infrastructure in the world.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Now, a lot of these jobs, from the project here in Baltimore to others across the country, are going to be blue-collar jobs, jobs for people that — where they will not require a college degree.

  And that's something that President Biden talked a lot about today. This is, of course, with an eye towards 2024, Geoff, because the president is trying to win back a number of white working-class voters, those that are not college-educated, that have moved away from the Democratic Party in recent election cycles.

• Geoff Bennett:

  So, Laura, this is just the first stop on the president's infrastructure tour this week. Where else is he heading?

• Laura Barrón-López:

  So, the president is on an East Coast tour this week, Geoff.

  That tour is going to start, as it did today, here in Baltimore. Then, tomorrow, on Tuesday, the president is headed to New York, where he's going to highlight the Hudson Tunnel project. That's improvements to another rail tunnel there. He's going to go from there to Philadelphia later in the week, where he will be with Vice President Kamala Harris.

  And they're going to highlight another element of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that is focusing on replacing lead pipes. That — also, this week, the president is going to be going to a number of Democratic National Committee fund-raising events, because, again, he is likely to announce his 2024 bid this spring.

• Geoff Bennett:

  White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López reporting for us from Baltimore tonight.

  Laura, thank you.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Thank you.