Garret Graves has completed nearly a quarter of his first term in Congress. So what does the 6th District congressman think of the new gig so far?
“You know, candidly, it’s one of the most frustrating jobs I’ve ever done in my life,” Graves said, when addressing the Baton Rouge Press Club Monday.
Graves said the halls of Congress vary from friendly to frenzied. One reporter asked the 43-year-old freshman if he thought his 86-year-old opponent could have handled it.
“For the record, he’s 87,”Graves said, with a hearty laugh. “I’m not going to say anything bad about Governor Edwards. I was very much impressed by his wit and how sharp he was. And I think that the pace can be as aggressive as you want it to be.”
Graves has taken a cue from Edwards’ main campaign theme, and is seeking solutions for traffic problems in the Baton Rouge area.
“We’ve actually brought down the chairman of the Transportation Committee, Bill Schuster,” he explained.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Graves sits on the U.S. House Transportation Committee. But he says Schuster was impressed with our petro-chemical industries, river, rail and pipeline systems. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of vehicles’ ability to cross the Mississippi River on Interstate Ten.
“Dow, for example, has had to run their own ferry from Plaquemine, shuttling some of their employees across the river,” Graves said of the chronic traffic jams on the bridge. “That’s not right.”
Graves stated he has already looked into the chances of funding a new I-10 bridge. Like the bridge itself, there’s no easy or fast way to get there.
“Because there are not earmarks in Congress anymore, our ability to come in and say hey, we’re gonna earmark X dollars for a bridge—those are practices of the past.”
The congressman said he expects a new federal transportation bill to pass later this year. That six-year funding measure could contain programs and/or funding to help alleviate the near-constant bottleneck of the I-10 bridge at Baton Rouge.