RENO, NV – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), one of the co-authors of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion, visited Reno-Tahoe International Airport and met with the airport’s CEO and President Daren Griffin to hold a press conference discussing the importance of the Senate-passed, bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for airports, her role as one of the bill’s co-authors and negotiators, and how the legislation will bolster Nevada’s economy.
“Nevada airports like Reno-Tahoe International are gateways for our state’s tourism-driven economy, but COVID-19 has created a host of new challenges for air travel in the past year and a half,” said Senator Rosen. “I had an opportunity to discuss how I believe we can support airports and related industries through the major investments that I helped secure as part of the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure package. These bold investments to modernize and upgrade our airports will encourage tourism, boost our economy, and create more good-paying jobs here in Nevada.”
“The work Senator Rosen has done to support airport infrastructure will support our efforts to move people and business forward, continuing to expand on the $3.1 billion per year economic impact the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority generates,” said Daren Griffin, President and CEO of Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority. “As we move forward with the more than $1 billion airport development plan, we will provide passengers with even more of what they love about traveling through RNO.”
BACKGROUND: In August, Senator Rosen voted to pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act through the United States Senate. As part of the bipartisan group that drafted the Senate-passed landmark legislation, Rosen played a leading role in writing the sections on airports and ensuring support for travel and tourism.
The section of the infrastructure bill focused on investments in our nation’s airports was co-written by Rosen. They include $25 billion in overall investment for airport infrastructure.
- $15 billion in flexible spending to allow airports to fund their key construction, expansion, upgrade, and repair projects;
- $5 billion for Airport Terminal Program to allow bigger airports to access larger amounts of money in order to build their higher cost terminal projects; and
- $5 billion for upgrades to Air Traffic Control facilities.
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also includes the text of Senator Rosen’s bipartisan Travel Optimization by Updating and Revitalizing Infrastructure to Support Mobilization (TOURISM) Act, which requires the Department of Transportation to update it’s National Travel and Tourism Infrastructure Strategic Plan to develop an immediate-term and long-term strategy for using infrastructure investments to revive the travel and tourism economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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