New Orleans, Nov. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Loyola Law Alumnus Mitch Landrieu to Lead Biden Infrastructure Plan
Former New Orleans Mayor to oversee $1.2 trillion plan to bring roads, rails, highways, improvements across America
(NEW ORLEANS – November 15, 2021) President Joe Biden on Saturday named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu – a cherished Loyola University New Orleans College of Law alumnus - to lead implementation of the nation’s highly anticipated $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed today on the White House lawn.
“I am so proud of Mitch for once again saying ‘yes’ to the call to serve. I know firsthand his commitment and his expertise,” said Madeleine Landrieu, J.D. ’88, H ’05, who not only serves as Loyola Law Dean and Adrian G. Duplantier Professor of Law, but is also the former mayor’s sister. “This is yet another example of our Loyola Law alumni serving our nation at a critical time in history.”
According to the White House, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is one of the largest investments in bridges, roads, and infrastructure in decades. The trillion-dollar program is expected to be a signature legislative achievement of the Biden Presidential Administration, bringing high-paying union jobs and new highways, railways, unprecedented clean energy and climate resilience investments, clean water drinking improvements, increased access to technology across America.
Landrieu, who graduated from Loyola Law in 1985 and together with his family received an honorary degree from Loyola in 2005 for public service following Hurricane Katrina, served as the city’s mayor from 2010 to 2018. He will serve as senior advisor responsible for coordinating for implementation of this historic bipartisan infrastructure law.
The Biden Administration cited his leadership as New Orleans mayor following Hurricane Katrina, noting that Landrieu “took office at a time when the city’s recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina had stalled.” Landrieu fast-tracked hundreds of projects and secured billions of dollars of funding to the help the city.
The Biden Administration also noted the former mayor’s chairmanship of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a role that prompted Governing magazine to recognize him as public official of the year in 2015. Leading at the state level, Landrieu also served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana and 16 years in the state Legislature.
The new infrastructure package is expected to bring $5.8 billion in new infrastructure to Louisiana over the next five years. U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in a statement celebrated the anticipated arrival of funding.
“Mitch Landrieu knows firsthand the devastation Hurricane Katrina caused on the Gulf Coast, and in turn, this devastation shows the importance, for Louisiana and the United States, of the investments the IIJA makes in coastal restoration, hardening the electrical grid and flood mitigation,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Having a Louisianan head this for the White House can only benefit our state.
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Loyola University New Orleans is a Catholic, Jesuit university located in the heart of the picturesque Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. For more than 100 years, Loyola has helped shape the lives of its students, as well as the history of the city and the world, through educating men and women in the Jesuit traditions of academic excellence and service to others. Loyola’s more than 40,000 graduates serve as catalysts for change in their communities as they exemplify the comprehensive, values-laden education received at Loyola.
