In an aerial view, cargo ship Dali is seen after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore. Rescuers are searching for at least seven people, authorities say, while two others have been pulled from the Patapsco River. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Congress moved expeditiously after the deadly collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis in 2007, when 13 people died and 145 were injured. The House unanimously fast-tracked a bill approving a quarter of a billion dollars to rebuild the bridge just two days after the collapse. The vote was 421-0. The Senate then approved a slightly different version by unanimous consent. The House then took the Senate version, approving that measure by unanimous consent. All told, it took a handful of days after the accident to sign money for the new bridge into law.
BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLAPSE: CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS CONSIDERING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE
Emergency appropriations for Tuesday's disaster may not move quite as quickly as they did in 2007, considering the scope of the tragedy and the size of the old Key Bridge.
Congress is currently in recess and only just wrapped up an acrimonious fight over government spending. Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland in a Tuesday statement offered prayers for those involved in the incident and promised to work with state leaders to "make federal resources available to reopen the Port of Baltimore, redirect critical road traffic, and rebuild the Key Bridge as quickly as possible."
Piling on additional debt – without offsets – could pose a problem in the House, where fiscal hawks are already raging against Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., about the two spending bills.
The cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The new I-35W bridge opened a little more than a year after the collapse.
Considering the amount of trade that funnels through the Port of Baltimore – to say nothing of traffic and commerce which moved across the Francis Scott Key Bridge as a major east coast artery – it is possible Congress could be called upon to provide funding to rebuild the bridge in record time.
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"Of course it will affect trade," Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., told Fox News Tuesday. "I’m worried about the families and all of the inconvenience that will occur because the bridge is gone. It was such a good link."
Fox News' Thomas Phippen contributed to this story.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
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