Louisiana’s Mitch Landrieu tapped by Biden to oversee infrastructure law

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to serve as a senior adviser tasked with implementing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.

The president is scheduled to sign the infrastructure bill late Monday, and Landrieu will attend.

“Our work will require strong partnerships across the government and with state and local leaders, business and labor to create good-paying jobs and rebuild America for the middle class,” Landrieu said in a statement.

“We will also ensure these major investments achieve the President’s goals of combating climate change and advancing equity.”

Landrieu served as New Orleans mayor from 2010 to 2018, dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.

The White House issued a statement outlining his role. Landrieu will oversee the implementation of expanding broadband, investing in climate resistant infrastructure and the repairing of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

In September, Landrieu wrote an opinion piece detailing how climate change has affected Louisiana and how the government should take action to continue to invest in climate resilient infrastructure.

“For our city and country to be truly resilient, we need more than levees holding back water and wetlands protecting us from storms; we must strike a balance between human needs and the environment that surrounds us while also combating the chronic stresses of violence, poverty and inequality,” he wrote.

He’s also written about how the U.S. needs to take accountability of its racist past in order to heal and move forward, pointing to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters and known white supremacist groups like the Oath Keepers.

“​​The country must approach this moment in history with clarity of thought and purpose, not just for January 6, but for the centuries of actions and inactions that led the country to this point,” he wrote. “We cannot change our history, but we can surely learn from it. If we don’t, our democracy may be the ultimate lost cause.”

While he was mayor, he removed four Confederate monuments in New Orleans. He’s also served as  two terms as lieutenant governor and 16 years in the state legislature.

Landrieu joins former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana in the Biden administration. Richmond, a Democrat and New Orleans native who is a senior adviser to the president, served as the national co-chairman of the Biden campaign.