Rep. Payne, Jr. and President Joe Biden Launch the Construction of the Portal North Bridge   

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. and President Joe Biden toured an elementary school and broke ground on the new Portal North Bridge today to promote the President’s Build Back Better agenda.  The locations helped highlight how the President’s agenda would provide billions of dollars for transportation projects and educational initiatives to improve both issues nationwide.  The current Portal Bridge is more than 100 years old and it is being replaced with a new Portal North Bridge due to the leadership efforts of Rep. Payne, Jr. in Congress.  Rep. Payne, Jr. introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to support the President’s agenda to repair and replace roads, bridges and rail infrastructure across the country.  The legislation, INVEST in America Act, passed the House in July 2021.

“It was an honor to welcome President Joe Biden to northern New Jersey and visit the Portal Bridge,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr.  “When we complete the new Portal North Bridge, it will make life easier for millions of commuters in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast Corridor.  It is a critical project to me because I have been an outspoken advocate for the entire Gateway Program and worked tirelessly to support the new bridge.  I helped secure $900 million in federal funding for the new bridge from the very beginning.  In addition, I have written letters to President Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio urging them to prioritize approval processes for the bridge in the federal government.  Now that the bridge is moving forward to completion, we need to shift our focus to approvals and funding for the Hudson River Tunnel project, which is under the Gateway Program.”

This morning, Rep. Payne, Jr. joined President Biden to visit two classrooms at East End Elementary School in North Plainfield, NJ.  The President chose that school because North Plainfield provides access to free preschool for all four-year-old children in the school district.  President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda would allow that district, and others nationwide, to expand the program to include three-year-old children.

Then Rep. Payne, Jr. and the President traveled to Kearny, NJ in the afternoon, where the President gave remarks at the New Jersey Transit Meadowlands Maintenance Complex.  The site was chosen because it is near the current Portal Bridge, the busiest rail bridge in the Western Hemisphere, and close to the site of the new Portal North Bridge.  The President’s agenda includes the largest federal transit investment in U.S. history and $30 billion for rail projects in the Northeast Corridor, such as the new Portal North Bridge.