To see the full exchange, click here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, questioned nominee for Department of Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, on his commitments to key infrastructure priorities. During Senator Blunt Rochester’s line of questioning, she pushed Mr. Duffy to commit to supporting funding for Port Wilmington, the Wilmington Airport, and Delaware State University’s aviation program.
“Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the members of this committee for your warm welcome…As we discussed in my office, the Department of Transportation plays a critical role in our global competitiveness.” Sen. Blunt Rochester said in her opening statement. “It impacts our economy, but we also focus on workforce supply chains, which is vitally important to me…We’ve had some conversations here before about port expansion, and we know that the Bipartisan Infrastructure law provided $2.25 billion for the Port Infrastructure Development Program to improve our nation’s ports.”
Sen. Blunt Rochester continued, “In my state, we have Port Wilmington that we discussed. Right now, we are in the midst of an expansion project that will not only help our economy globally, but it will also create good paying jobs. I just want to follow up on Mr. Peters’ question because I appreciated your commitment to making sure that there is funding… I wanted to ask you specifically; will you commit to supporting additional funding for the Port Infrastructure Development Program in the next Surface Transportation Reauthorization?”
“First, Senator, I want to thank you for making time. It was yesterday that you made time to meet with me, which I do appreciate that. I know how busy you are,” Mr. Duffy Responded. “And this is a topic that you brought up and which I, let you know. I understand how important our ports are to American commerce. Making sure the great products that we produce in this country, have a pathway to countries around the world that go through the great ports, like the one in your community. Also, we saw during Covid, when the supply chain breaks down, we need to make sure that, we can get products from around the world into this country that we don’t produce. And so, I would welcome the opportunity to work with you to make sure that we have the resources, to make sure that our, our ports, can meet the needs of today’s economy.”
###