NASHVILLE – The federal government should find more ways to bypass state legislatures to get transportation grants directly to cities and towns, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.
Biden also criticized the highway bill approved by the U.S. House earlier in the day as “basically a three-year patch that doesn’t give enough funding or enough certainty.”
The bill authorizes $325 billion in spending through the 2021 federal budget year, but it provides money for only the first three years because lawmakers couldn’t agree on a way to pay for it all. The measure would continue current rates of spending, adjusted for inflation.
The vice president drew applause from the hundreds of local officials attending the speech to the National League of Cities when he observed that federal money flowing through state capitols tends to get diverted toward the interests of governors and individual lawmakers.
“The biggest problem I have with the cities and towns is you almost always have to go through your state legislative bodies to get any help,” Biden said.