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Jeniffer Solis, Nevada Current
On a campaign stop in Las Vegas Friday, President Joe Biden reclaimed “Bidenomics,” announcing billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending on high-speed rail in Nevada and nationwide.
The president kept jabs toward his predecessor Donald Trump relatively light, instead highlighting his own administration’s economic accomplishments, including legislation to lower prescription drug costs, expand high-speed internet, increase infrastructure investments, employment growth and more.
“They started off making fun of it calling it ‘Bidenomics.’ Well guess what? It is Bidenomics. And we have a lot more to do but our plan is already paying off,” Biden said. “We’ve created 14 million jobs since I took office. More than any president’s created in all four years of their term.”
Trains. And more trains.
During the Friday campaign event hosted at the Carpenters International Training Center, Biden boasted $3 billion in federal funding for the Brightline West High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail System, a project that would connect Las Vegas to Southern California by train for the first time in more than 50 years.
The 218-mile all electric high-speed rail system will take passengers between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California in just over two hours – nearly twice as fast as driving. The route is projected to serve more than 11 million passengers annually, taking millions of cars off Interstate 15.
“Think of what that will mean to your local economy,” Biden said to union members attending the event. “That means more visitors, more business for Las Vegas, more money. And if a casino worker wants to take their kid to California for the weekend, they can have breakfast here in Las Vegas and lunch in LA.”
Once in operation, the project will remove an estimated 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Brightline has tentatively planned to make the train operational by 2028.
The rail project is expected to create 35,000 construction jobs, and 1,000 permanent jobs in operations and maintenance once in service, said Biden. An agreement between the California and Southern Nevada Building Trades will ensure the high-speed rail is built using union labor, while a separate agreement with unions representing railroad workers will ensure operations and maintenance is also carried out by union labor.
Biden vowed to strengthen the middle-class by rebuilding the national economy “from the middle out to the bottom up” and centering good-paying union jobs.
“I made a commitment to rebuild this country and stop the trickle-down economics. My dad was a hard working guy, he busted his neck. Not a whole lot trickled-down on our kitchen table,” Biden said.
In another boon for high-speed rail in the west, Biden announced another 171-mile all-electric rail line project— capable of speeds up to 220 miles per hour— through California’s Central Valley that would help link Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Project partners have committed to using union labor for operations and maintenance, Biden said, adding that the California project has already created more than 11,000 good-paying union construction jobs.
The California Inaugural High-Speed Rail Service Project will receive up to $3.07 billion in funding to facilitate the extension of high-speed rail between Bakersfild and Merced. The funding will also be used to build a train station in Fresno that will connect communities to urban centers in Northern and Southern California.
Passenger rail on the east coast will get a significant injection of federal funding too.
On Friday, Biden also announced $1.1 billion in new funding for significant upgrades to frequently-traveled rail corridors in Virginia, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.
In total, the rail projects announced will upgrade 15 existing rail routes, establish 47 extensions to existing and new conventional corridor routes, and advance 7 new high-speed rail projects.
‘Infrastructure decade’
“Folks, all of these projects stand in stark contrast to my predecessor. He always talked about infrastructure week, four years of infrastructure week, and he failed. On my watch instead of infrastructure week, America is having an infrastructure decade. Trump just talks the talk, we walk the walk,” Biden said to a crowd of cheering union members.
Funding for the rail projects announced Friday is part of $8.2 billion in new investments for 10 major passenger rail projects across the country. To date, the Biden administration has announced a total of $30 billion for rail projects across the country.
The federal government authorized $1.2 trillion in grants to establish federal-state partnerships for intercity passenger rail as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, commonly referred to as the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
“All told, thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill, over 40,000 infrastructure projects have been announced across America. Not just railroads, but bridges, roads, ports, airports, clean water systems, and affordable high-speed internet,” Biden said.
Biden reminded potential voters that a majority of Republicans in Congress voted against the trillion dollar infrastructure legislation, meanwhile those same legislators are receiving much-needed investments to their states.
“That doesn’t stop them from calling up now and saying ‘hey, Mr. President, we need a project in my district.’ Well, that’s okay. I promised I’d be a president for every American. But like I said before, I’ll see you at the ground-breaking,” Biden said.
High-speed intercity passenger rail may only grow across the United States in the coming decades, according to White House plans announced Friday.
The Biden administration also announced an investment of $34.5 million to identify and guide passenger rail development on 69 rail corridors across 44 states in order to prepare for additional rail projects.
‘Bidenomics’
During his stop in Las Vegas, Biden painted a rosy picture of the national economy, citing a federal report released Friday that showed the nation added another 199,000 jobs to the economy this month.
“Wages are up more than inflation. The economy grew by 5% this last quarter today. Supply chains are strong,” Biden said. “America’s had the strongest growth and now has the lowest inflation of any major economy in the world, but there’s more to do.”
Biden also referenced the mass shooting at UNLV that killed three people earlier this week, vowing to enact gun control legislation.
“Students and educators experienced trauma because of the shooting that took place in Las Vegas,” Biden said. “There’s been over 600 mass shootings in America this year alone, plus daily acts of gun violence. This is not normal. And we can never let it be normal. People have the right to feel safe, be safe, and I’m fighting to make sure they do.”
The entire Nevada Democratic congressional delegation attended the Biden campaign event, where they honored the victims of the UNLV shooting, and noted the somber week in Nevada.
During the event, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, along with Reps Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford praised the historic funding for high-speed rail in Southern Nevada, which they said was years in the making.
The entire Nevada delegation, including Republican Rep. Mark Amodei – who voted against the infrastructure bill – had officially urged the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to help them secure funding for the rail project.
“This took a long time, and it is worth celebrating, because this is once in a lifetime,” Cortez Masto said at Friday prior to Biden’s remarks. “This is how we, in Nevada, show and model for the rest of the country how to get it done. The first high-speed train in the United States, built right here in Nevada,” Nevada Senator Cathrine Cortez Masto said.
Rosen, who is seeking reelection, promised Nevada residents that after years of speculation, and promises, to bring a high-speed train to connect Southern Nevada to Southern California, this time was real.
“I’ve lived in Las Vegas for nearly 50 years and during that time, Nevadans were told over and over and over again about the idea of high speed rail in Las Vegas to Southern California,” Rosen said. “Such an historic project requires historic funding. And that’s why this time, this time is different thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law.”
Not everyone in Nevada welcomed the federal funding for a high-speed train to California – completion of which still hinges on Brightline attracting billions in private investment.
“This $3 billion should have gone to: securing the borders; delivering school choice for parents; enhancing public safety; or supporting veterans and military families,” said Sam Brown, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Rosen, in a statement. Brown characterized the federal investment in the project as “a $3 billion handout” to the private equity group that owns Brightline.
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