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Floor Speech
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Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I take this time, along with Senator Van Hollen, to update our colleagues on the tragic events that took place in Baltimore on March 26 of this year when the Dali, an almost 1,000- foot container vessel, ran into the support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and, within seconds, the bridge collapsed. It was a sight that was seen around the world in horror. It was a horrific event, and it had a major impact not only on my community in Baltimore but also around the Nation.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge is part of I-695 and part of the I-95 corridor on the east coast of the United States. It also is a bridge that is over the only channel into the Port of Baltimore. The Port of Baltimore is the third busiest port in the United States. It is No. 1 in roll-on, roll-off cargo, and it is critically important to our national economy, our supply chains, et cetera. This bridge is a major thoroughfare for the Northeast corridor. Over 34,000 vehicles a day were transporting through the Francis Scott Key Bridge prior to it being destroyed.
Now, the immediate impact: I think we have all seen the images of how the bridge collapsed and that part of the bridge was actually on the Dali vessel. The heart of the channel was completely blocked by the debris of concrete and steel.
The immediate tragedy was the loss of life. When the Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, there were eight people on the bridge. They were doing dangerous work, repair work, in order to keep our roads safer. Of the eight people who were on the bridge, two were able to be rescued; six perished as a result of the tragedy; and one of those, still, the body has yet to be recovered. That is part of the priorities that we are facing in dealing with this tragedy.
I want to just pause for one moment to once again thank the first responders. As I indicated, what happened to the Dali, it lost power. Within a matter of seconds after losing power, it struck the pier that protected the support beams and hit the support beam, and the bridge collapsed. Literally, within seconds after it lost power, the tragedy occurred.
The extremely fast response by first responders was able to stop traffic from going onto the bridge, saving many, many lives. And we thank our first responders for their quick thinking and their responding to protect public safety because this could have been a lot worse in regards to the loss of life.
I also want to give a shout-out to our Federal Agencies for their immediate response. I think the public should understand that the Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Army Corps of Engineers were all on the scene on the day of the tragedy and started the unified command--a unified command where the Coast Guard took the lead but all Agencies worked together.
They worked very closely with the State of Maryland, Governor Moore providing that leadership in our State, and our State agencies working with the unified command. They worked with our local government officials. There are three jurisdictions that are directly impacted by the bridge collapse: Baltimore City, and Mayor Brandon Scott was part of that unified command providing the leadership we needed from the city; Johnny Olszewski, the County Executive from Baltimore County, was also part of that team; and Steuart Pittman, the County Executive from Anne Arundel County, all became part of that unified command.
Within literally hours, Secretary Buttigieg was on the scene of the catastrophic event. President Biden has visited the site and provided direct leadership in directing the Federal Government to use all means to help Baltimore deal with this tragedy. Many other Federal officials were there.
I will give a shout-out to Administrator Guzman of the Small Business Administration setting up outreach offices for small businesses that were impacted so that they could get the type of help from the Federal Government, the Small Business Administration, that could be offered. And there were many, many others that were there.
I can't underscore too strongly the impact that this bridge collapse had on the economies of our region. It was interesting: The Small Business Administration accepted applications from every surrounding State because small businesses in surrounding States were also impacted by the channel being closed into the Port of Baltimore. There are about 15,000 jobs directly related to the Port of Baltimore. As I said, it is the third largest port in the United States, as 1.1 million containers are handled annually through the Port of Baltimore and $80 billion in import-export goes through the Port of Baltimore every year. And on March 26, the channel was closed. Ships that were in the port could not leave, and no new vessels could come in.
When you looked at the wreckage, we all thought it would take an incredible amount of time before the channels could be cleared; but thanks to the unified leadership, thanks to the resources of the Federal Government and the partnership of State and local governments, there was very quick action to deal with the Port of Baltimore. Almost immediately, two alternative channels were opened--one for 11 feet and one for 15 feet.
Remember, the main channel was 50 feet. So you are not going to get any major vessels, but we at least could get some tugs and barges through to do a little bit of activity to keep the port still operating.
And just recently, under the leadership of our Federal partners, we were able to open up the northern part of the channel to a 35-foot depth. That was very important because, within a month, we were able to get about 75 percent of the vessels going in and out of the port, which was critically important for the businesses.
We hope that, by the end of this week, we are going to have a 45-foot channel opened for the port. And by the end of this month, we hope that we will have a 700-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep channel reopened for full operations of the Port of Baltimore. That is a Herculean task and could not have been done but for the unified command and the cooperation of all partners. And we thank them for that because, I must tell you, I met with so many business owners who didn't even know if they could survive as a result of the bridge collapse. And with the government providing help, the Federal Government providing help--but it is critically important to get the port opened as quickly as possible.
We also are moving forward immediately on the replacement of this bridge. It is absolutely essential that the Francis Scott Key Bridge be replaced as quickly as possible. We know that is going to take some time. We know you are not going to be able to replace a bridge of this magnitude in a matter of months. It is going to take longer than that. We recognize that.
But as I said before, there are 34,000 vehicles that are now finding other ways to transport through this area. Now, if they have hazardous material, they cannot go through the tunnels that go through the port area of Baltimore that were alternatives to the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Hazardous materials are not permitted in the tunnels. That means they either have to go through side roads or they have to go around the beltway, which adds at least a half an hour or so to the trip. And when you are dealing with thousands of containers and moving many by truck, you can imagine the extra time and extra cost involved as a result of the bridge being out. So it is critically important that we replace the bridge as quickly as possible. The traffic jam problems are real. We have to get this done as quickly as possible.
Now, we know that it is going to take some time. We have an estimate of cost that the State of Maryland has provided to the Federal Government, a range between $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. I want to thank the Biden administration again--and Secretary Buttigieg--for the release of funds under the Emergency Relief Program, which has already been made available to our State. These are 100 percent Federal funds during this period of time, and we thank them for that.
This project will qualify for emergency relief funding under the Department of Transportation. Those funds are, by law, 90-10. But we have legislation in to carry out what President Biden requested--and I will get to that in one moment--that the Federal Government pay 100 percent of the cost of the replacement of the bridge. We had the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act that Senator Van Hollen and I have filed. We have also filed it as an amendment to the FAA bill. We are looking for the first opportunity to get this bill to the finish line, and I would urge our colleagues to find a way that we can get that bill passed as quickly as possible.
Let me just quote from OMB Director Young, who said that ``this authorization''--this is legislation that the Biden administration has urged Congress to pass:
This authorization would be consistent with past catastrophic bridge collapses, including in 2007, when Congress acted in a bipartisan manner within days of the I- 35W bridge collapse in Minnesota.
She went on to say that waiving Federal cost share is routine in disasters of national significance. This is a disaster of national significance. It may be the largest disaster of a bridge collapse ever from the point of view of insurance claims and third-party liability. So we are talking about a very disastrous situation, and it is very appropriate that the Federal cost share be waived.
I want to assure our colleagues--and we put this in the legislation-- that any third-party recoveries in regards to the bridge replacement, whether it is insurance coverage or whether it is third-party liabilities coverage, will go back to the Emergency Relief Fund and the Federal taxpayers. Federal taxpayers are on the hook right now for the cost of the replacement of the bridge. They will get all the recoveries in regards to it if this legislation were to pass.
I want to thank my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, for their support of our needs here. I have gotten calls from our Democratic and Republican colleagues offering their support, and we thank them very much for that. I hope that we can find a way to move this promptly.
I know that there are not too many bills that make it to the finish line. And we are running out of time in this Congress, so I would urge the cooperation of our colleagues to find the appropriate spot. And we hope it can be on the FAA bill, but we need to get this done as quickly as possible.
So let me just assure our colleagues that the story of the Francis Scott Key Bridge doesn't end with this tragedy. We are a very resilient community. The bridge will be rebuilt. The Port of Baltimore will be back to full strength and continue to grow. It has been growing at a very fast rate and will continue to show that type of growth.
As Governor Moore says, we are Maryland tough and Baltimore strong. We intend to make sure the Port of Baltimore has everything it needs to continue its growth and that the bridge is replaced.
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Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I just wanted to compliment my colleague Senator Van Hollen for his comments. I think he has said it the way that everyone in Maryland feels. We have worked together as a team on this. This is a national tragedy. We thank our Federal partners for their help. We are proud of the unified efforts that have evolved.
I appreciate Senator Van Hollen's comments about just ordinary citizens who have really rallied behind the situation, helping their neighbors, providing food, providing opportunities that were lost as a result of the bridge collapse. It has really been gratifying to see the unity and support of our community.
We need this legislation passed. I urge our colleagues to find a way that we can get this done as quickly as possible.
I thank my colleague Senator Van Hollen for his incredible leadership during this time.
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