INVESTING IN AMERICA: Secretary Buttigieg Delivers Remarks in Portland, Maine, Highlighting Biden-Harris Administration Investments Across the State

Portland, ME – Today, as part of his summer of construction tour, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the old B&M Beans factory in Portland’s East Deering neighborhood, the future site of Northeastern University’s Roux Institute. East Deering was awarded a $25 million RAISE grant to improve safety and multimodal transportation options for the growing neighborhood. 

There, he highlighted the progress of Biden-Harris Administration investments across Maine – the 50th state he’s visited as Secretary. The state has received over $2.7 billion in public investments in clean energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda.  

The East Deering RAISE grant will improve multimodal transportation options and safety in the neighborhood while also restoring residents’ access to a section of Maine’s coastline that has been inaccessible for more than a century due to the old B&M cannery and the construction of I-295, which bisected the neighborhood. Secretary Buttigieg was joined by Governor Janet Mills, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, and Portland Mayor Mark Dion. 

The full transcript of Secretary Buttigieg’s remarks:   

Thank you. Okay, thanks for that.  

First of all, just an extraordinary, warm welcome ever since we arrived here yesterday. It's been a fantastic visit and I'm so pleased to be able to celebrate this with you too. A big thank you to Governor Mills and her team, particularly Bruce Van Note in the [Maine] DOT team.  

It really matters When you have state leadership that understands the importance of infrastructure, it helps us be a better partner on the federal side and I've seen that focus, that commitment, and that investment here in Maine. And it's making communities across this state better off. So, we really, really appreciate that partnership with the government.  

I want to thank Chellie Pingree and all of the members of your – all four members of your federal delegation, because we have gotten so accustomed to the benefits of the Infrastructure Law across the country, that we run the risk of forgetting that this was far from guaranteed when we got here. 

We spent our whole first year trying to get this bill through. Its political obituary was written half a dozen times before the president finally was able to sign it on the South Lawn of the White House in November of 2021. And it passed because of support from leaders, like Representative Pingree, who were there with us, there with the President, working across the aisle, making sure this actually got done. And Mayor Dion, I want to thank you for the warm welcome, and just recognize the important work that you're doing here.  

I was proud to carry the title of mayor for most of my career in public service, and I've often reflected that the job is only become more demanding and probably more difficult since I wore the title. But I've also reflected that it sure would have been nice back then when I was mayor, if there was a trillion-dollar tailwind coming from an Administration with a big infrastructure package. So hopefully we're making your job a little easier at least in that respect.  

Like I said, it's been a great visit yesterday. We were looking at the bridges over by Freeport, then we had a great conversation about supporting rural communities up at Wolfe’s Neck. This morning, I took the chance to familiarize myself with Back Cove, running that loop clockwise. And now we're at another great site, that I saw the folks out there – you got so much to be proud of here.  

I’ve also kind of been eating my way through Portland, I should admit. I had one of the great meals in my life that at Scales last night and I'm surprise there was room for it after that whoopie pie we took away from the Harraseeket – is   that how you say it? –  yesterday. And then this morning at the Port they were, they were feeding us. We had great visit there. And I think I convincingly created the impression that that was my first and not in fact, my second potato donut of the day that that we were offered there, and we just had a great visit over at the Other Side Diner too. And of course, in addition to very much enjoying the meals, it's great to see the driving small businesses here in these communities, whose entrepreneurs take those risks to put their heart and soul into ensuring that these businesses grow.  

That's part of what's taking a project like this too. This brings together, three of my very favorite things: Academic research being commercialized to create opportunity, adaptive reuse of historic structures, and great transportation policy. Those are the kinds of partnerships that we're excited to support and it's just a great moment after this tour that we've had, we, as I said, we got to see the dirt flying on the construction sites at the bridges that are going to carry two roads over 295 up in Freeport. 

And then we were able to get a sense of how the local economy and the regional economy is supported by the excellent work of the port right here in Portland. And we've also been talking about what we're doing in Libbytown, one of many, many communities across the country that was effectively cut in two, by the way the interstate was built. And now we have an opportunity to build better connections to deal with what 295 did there.  

And now, here we are in East Deering. I want to applaud Portland for the investments that have been going on to invest in infrastructure for walking and biking. 

And I want to emphasize something important that sometimes missed especially in Washington when we're debating the value of multi-use paths and this kind of infrastructure for active transportation, which is that it benefits quality of place and quality of life, for sure. It attracts economic development, but it's also about safety.

This is something that can save lives which is why good multi-use paths and infrastructure are not ornamental, they are fundamental to good transportation policy, and I see that being recognized right here in Portland. 

Of course there is a lot more to do – parts of the city that need more of that infrastructure to make sure that it’s safe to drive, to bike, to walk, to use a wheelchair and that certainly includes East Deering. 

And that’s only going to be more important as Northeastern's new Roux campus brings so many students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to this area in the coming years.  

Local leaders saw that need. They chose to do what good leaders do and get ahead of those needs and potential challenges. They applied for federal funding to get that infrastructure to help support active transportation, to manage vehicle traffic, to reduce the need for some of that vehicle traffic, which also means cleaner air, and to keep people moving safely for decades to come. Which is part of why this is such a compelling case. You got a lot to be proud of because this RAISE program that's funding this project is one of the most competitive in the federal government.  

Many of the best ideas, we are still not able to say yes to because there are just so many competing for those dollars, but this project competed so well, and now I've seen for myself why this was a winner. 

I'm delighted to congratulate you on our award of $25 million dollars to build new active transportation, benefiting the community here in East Deering. This will go toward a new bridge for people to safely walk, bike, or roll parallel to Tukey's Bridge, connecting the downtown Portland peninsula with East Deering, and will extend a walking and biking paths to connect to that new bridging access to the new campus, and will adjust the interstate off-ramp to improve traffic flow as well. So, what this really means is safety, quality of place and just a better way of getting around a community that has long deserved this kind of investment.  

Now this is also a very meaningful day for me because Maine is the 50th state that I have visited as Secretary. We've seen transportation challenges, and opportunities of all kinds across the country. But the way that you have treated me, and fed me, over these last couple days – I really feel like I got to come up here more often, and it does feel like we save the best for last.  

What we see here is a community that, that found its superpower in adaptive reuse and quality of place and found a way to create jobs and a future for people to make sure that people who grew up here have every reason to stay here or return here and make sure people are encouraged to build their lives here and thrive here.

And we knew that there needed to be federal support for these kinds of efforts, and that's something that you have engaged so successfully. It's really an example of, what we had in mind when we pushed so hard to get that Biden-Harris infrastructure package, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law done. 

And we've seen stories and examples of this across the country, cities and towns that are not just keeping the lights on, they're innovating, they're creating. And now have a partner in Washington to literally cement those gains with the right kind of infrastructure. 

It's hard for me to convey the scale how widely this is happening across our country. We now have over 60,000 infrastructure projects large and small, moving forward across the United States and it's everything from major efforts that I call the cathedrals of our infrastructure – sometimes multi-state multi-billion dollar projects – to a spotlight, Grand Forks, North Dakota where this railroad crossing has just been a community headache for years, and we finally got the funding to put in an overpass to get rid of it and make things just a little bit easier. 

And what unites all of those projects, all 60,000 of them, is not one of them was cooked up in the Department of Transportation headquarters in the Navy Yard in Washington D.C.  

All of these projects were developed by communities by states, by local projects sponsors. The philosophy of our infrastructure package is that the ideas aren't going to come from Washington, but more of the funding should and now it finally is. That's what we're celebrating and marking today.  

Of course, I'm proud of the infrastructure elements of this but this is part of a bigger picture of how this Administration is working to make life a little easier, a little more affordable, and to look to the future. 

Whether we're talking about the work that's been done to bring down the cost of insulin or the efforts to help veterans with health complications like the folks I served with in Afghanistan, to finally get care through the new Pact Act.  

What we're really talking about is practicing a politics of the everyday. A politics and policy framework, that understands that what matters isn't the acronyms of all the bills that got passed, or how many zeros are in those funding packages that move through the big white buildings in Washington, DC.  

It's how everyday life is a little bit different and a little bit better when we get things right.  

I see all around me the partnerships that are getting things right.  

And I can't wait to see the future opportunity that's going to be created here.  

So, thanks so much for the chance to celebrate this with you. Please send me a postcard or better yet, save me a seat at the ribbon cutting because I can't wait to see the finished product and congratulations on all the great work that you have going on here and across the state.  

Thanks very much.