New York Mayor-elect Eric Adams, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and several other newly elected city executives from across the country — including St. Petersburg’s Ken Welch, Cleveland’s Justin Bibb and Cincinnati’s Aftab Pureval — are heading to the White House on Tuesday with several top Biden administration officials.
The group will meet with, among other officials, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
The group of officials also includes two people who oversee some of President Joe Biden’s sweeping legislative plans — Gene Sperling, who oversees the rollout of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, the American Rescue Plan, and Mitch Landreau, who has the same role for Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and is a former mayor himself.
They are expected to discuss both the newly passed infrastructure bill and the COVID relief bill, as well as other legislative priorities impacting cities nationwide, including the nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better bill currently being debated in the Senate.
Pureval told a local outlet that he will push for funding to repair the Brent Spence Bridge, a major artery which connects Cincinnati and Kentucky — and one in desperate need of repair or replacement.
“I’ll be there talking about how we can make sure we get the Brent Spence Bridge fixed, that we invest in our big infrastructure projects here in Cincinnati,” Pureval told Cincinnati CBS affiliate WKRC. “Brent Spence is the number one priority, not just for Cincinnati, but should be for the entire country. It’s such an important artery of commerce.”
“It’s crucial that we are able to leverage those resources to help build our infrastructure in St. Petersburg, so we’re excited about that,” Welch told Spectrum News, emphasizing the importance of having federal and state partners to bring that funding down to the municipal level. “Thankfully, I have a bit of a leg up as a Biden delegate during his election, so we’ve got those relationships and we want to build on that.”
Other mayors and mayors-elect attending include Andre Dickens of Atlanta, Jim Ross of Arlington, Texas, Bruce Harrell of Seattle, Rickenmann of Columbia, S.C., and Tim Kelly of Chattanooga, Tenn. — of the group of 10, two are Republicans and the rest are Democrats.
For Wu, their meeting will be a reunion of sorts between the newly elected Boston mayor and her predecessor, Walsh — which comes amid growing speculation that the Labor Secretary may run for governor of Massachusetts.
