U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in Pittsburgh Thursday touting President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan.
On a Mt. Washington overlook alongside state and local officials, Pete Buttigieg called attention to Pittsburgh's infrastructure, which he says could use repairs.
"We also traveled under the McKees Rocks Bridge and the West End Bridge - beautiful structures, but you could see nets hanging just to capture pieces of concrete that could fall off of the sidewalk there," he said. "Pittsburgh has a total of 446 bridges, many of which are in a state of disrepair."
Buttigieg promoted Biden's infrastructure plan as a way to upgrade Pittsburgh's infrastructure and create local jobs.
He pointed to Pittsburgh's transition to a hub for medicine and tech.
"Yet for all of its change, people are still relying on the same bridges to get around, which means they are depending on infrastructure that is, in many cases, 100 years old," he said.
Buttigieg also addressed Republican criticism of the plan. Some Republicans believe the bill is too broad and disagree with the corporate tax hike. Buttigieg says Biden is willing to work with Republicans.
"The president really believes in a bi-partisan approach. We've been speaking with members of both sides aisle, literally every day, on ways to get this done. But what's not an option is to do nothing because we literally had pieces falling off bridges in Pittsburgh and everywhere else and we just can't wait," explained Buttigieg.