Mayor Lightfoot travels to DC for White House, Capitol meetings

WASHINGTON – Mayor Lori Lightfoot arrives in Washington on Tuesday and will be here through Friday for a series of meetings in the Capitol and White House for, among other matters, landing new infrastructure funds for the city.

She will be discussing city priorities with members from the Illinois delegation at a dinner Tuesday night hosted by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in his Capitol office.

The Chicago Sun-Times has also learned that while in Washington, Lightfoot will meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; White House Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator, Mitch Landrieu; and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice.

On Wednesday, Lightfoot will be at the White House with President Joe Biden for an event marking World AIDS Day.

In a statement, City Hall officials said the mayor will “visit with top White House officials and senior leaders to advocate on behalf of Chicago’s residents, maximizing historic Federal investments in COVID response, infrastructure, and in our communities and families.”

Lightfoot travels here as the Biden administration and Senate Democrats continue to map strategy to get the support of Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, for passage of Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, which contains the president’s signature social spending and climate provisions.

Lightfoot was last at the White House on Nov. 15, when Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law. Some $17 billion will flow from the measure to Illinois, with hundreds of millions of dollars to individual units of government, such as the City of Chicago and Cook County, and agencies, for example, the CTA, Metra and PACE.