The Democratic official who has overseen over $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending by the Biden administration will resign from the White House to join President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.
Mitch Landrieu joined the White House in December of 2021 as a coordinator for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with the rank of senior advisor to the president, responsible for disbursing the act’s funds to over 40,000 state and local projects. Landrieu will depart the White House to join the Biden-Harris campaign as its national co-chair, according to multiple reports, at a time when Biden is losing to former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, in multiple opinion polls. (RELATED: Biden Says Infrastructure Bill Will Drive Job Growth. There’s Just One Problem)
“We’ve expanded affordable high-speed internet access to over 22 million people, and started improvements on over 135,000 miles of roads in America. Mitch has traveled over 119,000 miles to nearly 150 cities across the country to hear directly from communities and partner with Governors, Mayors, members of Congress, labor, and private sector companies to help rebuild America,” Biden wrote in a statement issued by the White House.
Thanks to @POTUS‘ agenda, we’ve made historic progress toward growing a clean energy economy. We’ve already provided funding for nearly 3K clean buses and announced $7B to launch regional clean hydrogen hubs with $50B in public & private sector investment.https://t.co/W7ekSR0fiv
— Mitch Landrieu (@MitchLandrieu46) January 2, 2024
At Landrieu’s direction, the Biden administration hired 6,100 federal employees to disburse the funds authorized by the law, the AP reported. Landrieu also faced criticism from Republican-led states who complained about funding being tied to social welfare programs.
“Excessive consideration of equity, union memberships, or climate as lenses to view suitable projects would be counterproductive,” wrote the governors of sixteen Republican-led states in a joint letter to Biden on Jan. 19, 2022. “Your administration should not attempt to push a social agenda through hard infrastructure investments and instead should consider economically sound principles that align with state priorities.”
Landrieu previously served as the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, mayor of New Orleans and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and is from a prominent Louisiana political family. His father, Moon Landrieu, held two of the same offices and was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Carter administration, while his sister, Mary Landrieu, served as the state’s treasurer and the U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015.
“I’m thrilled that he’ll be joining our team as a co-chair and key voice for our campaign as we continue this fight,” wrote Julie Chavez-Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, in a statement to Axios. “Mitch has been a key leader in the Biden-Harris administration’s work.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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