Two MS mayors sign on to letter backing White House’s infrastructure plan

Greenville’s Simmons, Jackson’s Lumumba join U.S. Conference of Mayors in call to pass bill.

In a letter released by the White House today, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, led by Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley, announced their support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, urging U.S. Senate and U.S. House leaders to pass the plan.

Two Mississippi mayors signed on to the letter: Errick Simmons of Greenville and Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson. Both mayors are Democrats.

The White House says the letter is signed “by more than 369 bipartisan mayors from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” The group claims that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework would make our economy “more sustainable, resilient and just.”

The groups writes:

“This framework would be the largest long-term investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century – $1.2 trillion over eight years – to help make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and just. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework is crucial to making meaningful progress on one of the most pressing and unifying challenges facing our country – the need for comprehensive investment in public transportation; roads; bridges; passenger and freight rail; drinking water and wastewater; clean energy and electrification; legacy pollution cleanup; cyber-attack and extreme weather-resiliency; and universal broadband access. Thus, we believe that this framework deserves bipartisan support in the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.”

Further, the mayors request that no funding previously signed into law to help cities address the health, public safety and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic be “clawed back,” repurposed or redirected to help pay for new investments in America’s infrastructure. They also want more funding made available through Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Community Development Block Grants, and Surface Transportation Block Grants.

The White House release announcing the letter of support said, “Mayors are on the frontlines of our nation’s infrastructure, seeing first-hand how critical investments – like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework includes – can transform our nation’s communities.”

The full letter is available here.