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Highway Funds in Hand, Bickering Over Credit

@LouisianaGov

Governor John Bel Edwards and state DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson were in Lafayette Wednesday, then Baton Rouge Thursday, touting receipt of $60-million in federal FAST Act funds for highway work.

“We’re actually going to spend the money on I-10 over in the Lafayette area between I-49 and the Atchafalaya Basin,” the Governor explained at the Baton Rouge event. “But it’ll allow us to free up the same amount of money that we were going to spend constructing a new off-ramp to alleviate that bottleneck for the traffic that’s moving east across the Mississippi River bridge.”

Congressman Charles Boustany did not attend the Lafayette event, but Congressman Cedric Richmond was on hand Thursday.

“I want to thank Congressman Richmond here, and I know that Congressman Graves was invited. He played a critical role in the passage of this act, as well,” Edwards said.

Yet before the Thursday  press conference started, the Louisiana GOP tweeted: “It’s remarkable that @LouisianaGov is taking credit for the work of @RepGarretGraves and @SteveScalise on securing #FASTLANE grant $.”

Asked about the criticism, the governor said, “I think it’s more important that we get the roads fixed, than it is to who gets credit.”

Then Congressman Richmond jumped in.

“I don’t know about who-all gets credit, but I will tell you that I know that these two gentlemen (pointing to the governor and DOTD secretary) made the direct ask of the President.,” Richmond said, clearly irritated. “And then it was the congressional delegation’s job to go get it done – in a bipartisan fashion.”

Governor Edwards noted that he had praised Congressman Graves earlier, then said, “The entire congressional delegation supported this effort. There is nothing that we do as government that ought to be more bi-partisan in nature than transportation infrastructure.”

Shrugging his shoulders, the governor added, “I thought everybody would see this as a good day for Louisiana, but if they’re upset -- I can live with that.”