On Thursday, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg led a large gathering of port authorities, shippers, and labor leaders to examine the fallout from the recent bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, that sent large portions of the Francis Scott Key Bridge into the water. Available details point to a freak accident spurred by a large cargo ship malfunctioning, hitting the bridge.
The Buttigieg-led meeting erodes the predictable, right-wing claims following the collapse of the Biden administration basically slacking on the job.
“Ocean carriers shared how they are diverting cargo to other East Coast ports, both in the near and medium term, and the importance of communication throughout the supply chain as traffic is changed,” a recap of the meeting provided by the Transportation Department said. Figures from the trucking and railroad industries also joined the gathering.
“We are much better equipped to mitigate supply chain disruptions than we were just a few years ago, thanks to increased coordination across the supply chain and new efforts to strengthen both our physical and digital infrastructure,” said prepared remarks from the Secretary on Thursday. “The Department of Transportation is ready to support Baltimore in any way we can as we work to mitigate impacts on our economy and the community.”
Some of these same federal interests were involved earlier in the Biden administration in responding to shipping disruptions concurrent to the COVID-19 pandemic, which were held partly to blame for some of the rises in prices seen across the United States. Overall rates of inflation, as measured by the federal government, have significantly lowered, though figures on the Right — like presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trump himself — still insist on using the idea of skyrocketing costs as a talking point.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, also spoke at a recent press conference at the White House about the intentions from the president’s team for comprehensive support for Maryland, and he derided conspiracy theories about the disaster in an interview with CNN.
