As President Joe Biden rallies nationwide support for a massive $1.9 trillion infrastructure bill, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with reporters, including the Press, in a videoconference recently to explain some of the details.

While Republicans argue for a far smaller package dedicated specifically to physical infrastructure – roads and bridges and the like – Buttigieg calls Biden’s American Jobs Plan an investment in business competitiveness that will help retool jobs and the economy for years to come. It includes expanding broadband access, improving schools and workforce development to maintain the roads and bridges, as well as new electricity sources and replacing aged water systems.

Buttigieg said it once took weeks to travel across the country, but that we changed all that with bold investments and major action, which is what the American Jobs Plan seeks to reproduce. “The U.S. now rank 13th globally in our transportation infrastructure,” Buttigieg said, “and frankly for some time we’ve been headed in the wrong direction. I don’t think it takes a lot to convince Americans that our infrastructure needs investment and improvement, but that won’t happen on its own.”

It has to be big and now, he said, to combat ongoing health, climate and social crises, and to fix roads, bridges, waterways, airports, rail and transit systems.

“A lot is going to depend on the leadership of the business community. Businesses have been crying out for improvement for a long time because part of the bottom line is the ability to rely on the infrastructure that we have, and we’ve been coasting for far too long on investments that were made generations before we got here.”

He said a study by Moody’s indicates implementing the AJP will create millions of jobs, many of which will not require college degrees. While true, it should be noted these jobs will be balanced against those lost by failing industries such as coal, and that they may require vocational training or certain levels of degrees. These sorts of observations may be splitting hairs, but they’ve successfully delayed real action in Washington.

Thus, Buttigieg concluded by exhorting local political and business leaders to apply their knowledge and credibility to the issue. “You can speak in very direct terms about what it actually means to fix roads and bridges, what it would do for your bottom line if we had better ports and airports, what it would actually look like if your employees could access their workplaces with better transit or if your customers could better access broadband.

“Sharing those stories is incredibly powerful. Economists will say it, I will say it, about the economic growth we can achieve, but it means so much more when you say it.”