Norton Celebrates the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge She Got Congress to Fund

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) spoke yesterday at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, for which she got the bulk of the funding, at an infrastructure event with U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Norton said the bridge is "the most important bridge in the nation's capital," connecting the city's wards and serving "as the connective tissue that holds our city and our region together." Her remarks, as prepared for delivery, follow.

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, originally known as the South Capitol Street Bridge, is perhaps the most important bridge in the nation's capital. The bridge not only connects residents in Wards 7 and 8 to the city's other six wards, but commuters and visitors as well. This bridge serves as the connective tissue that holds our city and our region together. That is why Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and I, in my role as a senior member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, spent more than a decade seeking and squirrelling away funds in each appropriations bill until we got the 60% federal funding for this bridge.

I am particularly grateful to my good friend and our neighbor Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has also been a leading champion of D.C. statehood, for his inestimable help with the funding for this bridge.

Much of the development my bills have brought to D.C. over the last few years, particularly the Wharf and the Yards, will come to fruition because the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge will bring people to our new world-class waterfront. This development is still in progress, creating well-paid construction jobs in the short term and businesses to ensure long-term job growth.

The Douglass bridge is a shining example of federal infrastructure dollars at work. I will be showcasing this in my role as Chair of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit as we move to passage of a major infrastructure bill this year in line with President Biden's Build Back Better agenda and his American Jobs Plan in particular.

Last Congress, the House passed the Moving Forward Act, which was not only a vehicle for major projects related to highways, bridges, transit and rail, but also contained unprecedented provisions on schools, housing and broadband.

Today, with Democrats in full control of the House, Senate and the White House, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the future and address challenges like climate change and environmental justice. Though there may be debate in Congress about the size and scope of the infrastructure package, there is bipartisan agreement about the value of physical infrastructure like the bridge we see here today.

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge epitomizes the infrastructure at the heart of the pending bill. I will continue to work to support big, bold projects like this bridge that can transform communities.