Saturday, April 06, 2024

Biden Visits Baltimore Same Day the Body of a Missing Worker is Recovered

Biden Baltimore
Biden standing near the remains of the bridge addressing the media (White House)

PUBLISHED APR 5, 2024 8:47 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE


Late on Friday, the Unified Command managing the recovery efforts in Baltimore confirmed that the body of one of the six missing construction workers killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed has now been recovered. Divers working at the bridge located the remains just hours before President Joe Biden visited the city and promised that the federal government would continue the efforts and rebuild the bridge.

“Earlier this afternoon, we took an aerial tour to survey the wreckage,” said President Biden during a briefing. “You know, from the air, I saw a bridge that’s been ripped apart, But here on the ground, I see a community that’s been pulled together.” To strong applause from the governor, leaders of the salvage effort, and the audience, Biden said, “I’m here to say: Your nation has your back, and I mean it. Your nation has your back.”

Biden talked about the construction crew of eight men who spent the night shift fixing potholes on the bridge, before meeting with the families privately. He recounted that they were on a break, with one calling home saying they had just poured cement and were waiting for it to dry when the ship struck the bridge.

Eight people plunged into the river and two were recovered immediately by the first responders. Six bodies remained missing with the teams saying it was difficult and dangerous to locate them within the tangled mess under the water. Two bodies were recovered two days after the bridge collapsed.

Divers have continued to work at the site including teams yesterday and today that were surveying the containership. The Unified Command reports the divers located what they believed to be one of the missing construction workers at approximately 10:30 a.m. this morning and the Maryland State Police Underwater Recovery Team was deployed. They recovered the remains of 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval and notified his family. 

The other three construction workers remain missing. Officials said that they continue to place a priority on the recovery of their remains as the efforts continue at the site.

 

Dive teams continue to work at the site and today found the remains of one of the four missing construction workers (USCG)

 

Biden told the audience that the priority is to reopen the port repeating the projection from the Army Corps that the full channel will be open by the end of May. Today, he reported that Dislocated Worker Grants have begun. He also said that the Small Business Administration issued a disaster declaration while calling on all the businesses using the port to remain committed to Baltimore.

During the remarks, he also called on the U.S. Congress to approve funding for a replacement bridge as soon as possible. The White House budget office later released a letter sent to Congress asking for the replacement estimating the cost at more than $2 billion.

“My administration is committed — absolutely committed to ensuring that the parties responsible for this tragedy pay to repair the damage and be held accountable to the fullest extent the law will allow,” Biden told the audience.

The administration told Congress that it would pursue all available courses of action to recover costs and get compensation for the damages or insurance proceeds from those responsible for the destruction.  
 

Biden vows to rebuild Baltimore bridge in disaster zone visit

Agence France-Presse
April 6, 2024

US President Joe Biden speaks about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by the container ship Dali, in Baltimore, Maryland
 (Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP)

U.S. President Joe Biden promised Friday to "move heaven and earth" to rebuild a collapsed Baltimore bridge as he visited the site of the disaster that killed six people.

"I'm here to say, your nation has your back," Biden said in front of the mangled remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which still lie across the huge cargo ship that destroyed it.

As Biden's administration tries to limit the economic fallout in an election year, he added that a new channel allowing access to one of America's biggest ports would open by the end of May.

The president flew over the wreckage of the bridge in his helicopter Marine One so he could get an aerial view of the colossal scale of the March 26 disaster in Baltimore harbor.

Biden then received a briefing from recovery workers who are trying to remove the thousands of tons of wreckage and open alternate channels to allow ships in and out of the port.

"From the air I saw the bridge that's been ripped apart -- but on the ground I see a community that's been pulled together," he added.

The bridge was destroyed in seconds when the Singapore-flagged Dali cargo ship plowed into a support column, killing six road workers and shocking the country.

The Democrat urged Congress to back his plans to fully pay for the rebuilding of the bridge, despite the current paralysis on Capitol Hill as Republicans block much of his legislation.

"We're going to get this paid for," said Biden, 81, wearing a baseball cap with a presidential seal and a jacket to fend off biting wind and cold.

"We're going to move heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible."

- 'American steel' -

The White House has been keen to show that Biden has a grip on the bridge disaster, which threatens supply chains that could have an impact on the economy with the US presidential election some seven months away.

The port of Baltimore is a key hub for the auto industry, handling almost 850,000 autos and light trucks last year -- more than any other US port -- according to Maryland state figures.

Biden also nodded to the industrial revival policies that he hopes will win him reelection against Republican Donald Trump in November, saying the rebuilding would happen with "American labor and American steel."

In his bid to woo blue collar voters in the US industrial heartland, Biden has repeatedly backed unions and sought to bring home manufacturing from China.

Biden meanwhile paid tribute to the dead workers, who were immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras -- pitching himself against the rhetoric of Trump who casts migrants as invaders who are ruining the country.

The task ahead for Baltimore remains immense.

First, salvage workers must remove the bridge by cutting it into smaller sections and lifting them out of the water and off the ship.

They also hope this will help rescuers recover all the victims' bodies.

Then they must remove the ship, a behemoth carrying some 4,700 containers.

Rebuilding the bridge, which carries a major road around the outskirts of the port city 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Washington, is expected to take years and cost billions of dollars.

‘Hostage’: House GOP group slammed for threat to derail Baltimore bridge rebuilding funds
 The New Civil Rights Movement
April 5, 2024 

The cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland.
(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The far-right House Freedom Caucus is threatening to derail any federal funding legislation to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that was destroyed last week in a deadly accident. Their statement comes ahead of President Joe Biden's planned trip to visit the wreckage Friday afternoon, where he will deliver remarks scheduled for 2:30 PM ET.

The pro-MAGA nationalist group, chaired by U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) (photo), who is fighting to retain his congressional seat, issued a statement demanding the insurance from "foreign shipping companies" should pay all costs to rebuild, before the federal government even "considers" appropriating any additional funds, rather than have the federal government be reimbursed by insurance.

Experts say that could delay reconstruction for years, given expected lawsuits.

“Litigation will run years,” John Miklus, the president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters, told CNN last week. “This claim has the potential to be north of a billion dollars.”

That billion-dollar figure does not include the cost to the U.S. economy, especially because of the bridge's impact on the Port of Baltimore.

Brookings Institution's Joe Kane says, "on an annual basis, there are about 50 million tons of goods valued at about $80 billion that go to and from the port each year." He also says "about 12 million vehicles a year used the bridge."

President Biden immediately after the deadly accident vowed the U.S. government would pay to rebuild the bridge.

The House Freedom Caucus in its "Official Position on Francis Scott Key Bridge Response," is saying no.

While attempting to derail federal funding legislation to rebuild the bridge, the House Freedom Caucus is insisting the federal government rescind all environmental and labor protection laws and policies in relation to rebuilding, which it characterizes as "burdensome regulations," to "avoid all unnecessary delays and costs."

The Freedom Caucus also demands "the Biden Administration's pause on approvals of liquified natural gas export terminals ... must be lifted before Congress considers appropriating any funding for the bridge reconstruction."

U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democrat who represents parts of Baltimore, slammed the far-right GOP group.

The Freedom Caucus "says it plans to hold Key Bridge rebuilding $$ hostage to ridiculous demands including waiving environmental rules, labor agreements & greenlighting LNG exports. Enough with the political games that will slow progress & keep Marylanders from getting back to work."

The communications director for U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Ben Kamens, calls the Freedom Caucus' statement, "a real cutting off your nose to spite your face situation," saying that "many of these Members represent Congressional Districts that will feel a direct financial impact from imports and exports being stalled at the Port of Baltimore."

"Make it make sense," urged U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA). "House Republicans are insisting we resume liquified natural gas exports—which raise energy prices and hurt our climate—before *checks notes* reopening one of our nation’s busiest ports and a bridge that carries 11.3 million vehicles a year."

Nicole Tardif, who has worked for several Republican members of Congress and several conservative organizations, blasted the House Freedom Caucus.

"Nothing screams Freedom Caucus more than politicizing a tragedy that cost people their lives, continues to disrupt countless Americans’ livelihoods, and is wrecking havoc on supply chains. Closing out the statement with an irrelevant natural gas reference was a nice, subhuman touch. Pound sand."


Read the Freedom Caucus' statement below or at this link.


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