WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s proposed 2024 fiscal year budget, sent to Congress on Thursday, contains $350 million for the CTA’s extension of the Red Line on the South Side, which, if built, would serve many low-income neighborhoods in areas lacking access to the city’s L system.
“My budget is about investing in America and all of America, including places and people and folks who have been forgotten,” Biden said in Philadelphia.
The Biden $6.8 trillion budget framework, as written, likely has no chance of surviving in the Republican-controlled House. Biden’s budget is seen as an initial offer to Congress as the GOP House and Democratic-run Senate negotiate over funding.
Illinois Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Mike Quigley — each on the appropriations committees in their respective chambers — have been pushing for the funds to extend the Red Line 5.6 miles south of 95th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway.
It would be, when completed, they noted, “the first rail transit extension in Chicago in 30 years.
“Public transit plays an integral role in the lives of millions of Chicagoans. For many, it is the best and only option to get to work, go to school and visit family. I am glad that the Biden administration sees the importance this project has in forming equitable transit solutions,” Quigley said in a statement.
“This extension will ensure access for tens of thousands of low-income residents on the South Side of Chicago while providing a massive economic boost for our city.”
Red Line expansion is a Durbin priority, and he said in a statement, “Tens of thousands of Chicago residents, many of whom are low income, rely on the Red Line as their sole transportation option. This transformative project will provide long-awaited relief for the South Side community. Improving our infrastructure means better-connecting Chicagoans to jobs, education, commerce and opportunity.”
Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., whose district includes part of the South Side, said in a statement, “For communities that too often feel forgotten, President Biden’s budget shows that this administration will not allow our district to be left behind.”
In February, a letter from the Chicago-area Democrats in Congress to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed the case for federal funding for the project.
The letter said, in line with the Biden administration’s equity goals, that the Red Line extension will “provide much-needed access to transit for tens of thousands of low-income residents of Chicago’s South Side and provide a massive economic boost to a long-neglected area of the city.”
The letter noted that Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the City Council pledged to generate $959 million for the project through creation of a tax-increment financing district.
