The White House announced late Sunday night Mitch Landrieu, a former New Orleans mayor, has been tapped by President Joe Biden to oversee his $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan. The bill authorizing the historic spend is expected to be signed Monday.
A Biden administration statement outlined Landrieu, 61, will act as senior advisor to the president under the title of infrastructure coordinator of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Landrieu will be tasked with coordinating investments that will create millions of jobs while overhauling the nation’s infrastructure from roads and bridges to airports and ports.
“Landrieu will oversee the most significant and comprehensive investments in American infrastructure in generations,” the White House said, as reported by UPI.
Landrieu’s experience as mayor of New Orleans from 2010-2018 and lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 2006-2010 was cited by the administration as preparation for the job although no mention was made of his personal Civil War-era monument removal crusade.
Mitch Landrieu speaks during the United States Conference of Mayors at the Fountainebleau Hotel on June 26, 2017 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“These monuments celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy,” Landrieu said in defense of his anti-monument drive. “Ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.”
During his term, Landrieu drew a backlash when he called for the removal of four Civil War-era Confederate statues in New Orleans he deemed a “public nuisance.”
The New Orleans City Council eventually backed Landrieu’s decision, which drew criticism and even protests from people who wanted the monuments preserved.
A New Orleans city worker wearing body armor and a face covering as he measures the Jefferson Davis monument on May 4, 2017 in New Orleans, Loiusiana. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The former mayor also hit the television news circuit to bash President Donald Trump during his time in office, as Breitbart News reported.
In 2018 he called Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan a “dog whistle” for southerners, especially African-Americans.
In a statement, Landrieu thanked Biden for the new appointment. He said:
Our work will require strong partnerships across the government and with state and local leaders, business and labor to create good-paying jobs and rebuild America for the middle class. We will also ensure these major investments achieve the president’s goals of combating climate change and advancing equity.
Under the bill, the government will invest $55 billion to expand access to clean drinking water, $65 billion to ensure every American has access to high-speed Internet, $110 billion in new funding to repair roads and bridges and support major transportation projects and $89.9 billion in funding for public transit, the largest federal investment in public transit history.
Biden has named coordinators to oversee other major initiatives of his administration, the Hill reports.
He tapped Jeff Zients to coordinate the administration’s COVID-19 response and named Gene Sperling to oversee the implementation of the sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan that Biden signed into law in March.
Veteran diplomat Elizabeth Jones was added last month to coordinate the relocation of Afghan refugees.
UPI contributed to this report
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