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U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said Monday that communities should see funding from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill hit the streets in mid 2022 and underscored the importance of passenger rail in the Bay State during a visit to Springfield.

Accompanied by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, Walsh made his remarks at Union Station following a closed door meeting with Western Massachusetts mayors, labor officials and civic planners.

Neal reiterated his position that enhanced east-west passenger rail through Springfield and Western Massachusetts remains a top priority.

Walsh, the former two-term mayor of Boston, agreed.

“I think the congressman mentioned to me four or five times the importance of that east-west link,” Walsh said. “And as former mayor of Boston I know because we talked about making that connection to West Station so people from Western Massachusetts can get to work and the Commonwealth can grow.”

The bill includes $66 billion for Amtrak nationwide and $2.5 billion for public transit in Massachusetts.

Walsh and Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, discussed not just the infrastructure bill, but President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better Act of education, health care and social services spending plan that was also passed by the House of Representatives. The Build Back Better Act is awaiting Senate approval before it can go to Biden’s desk and become law.

The infrastructure bill also will give Massachusetts $4.2 billion for federal highway programs and $1.1 billion for bridges here along with funds for high speed internet and $1.1 billion Massachusetts over five years for clean drinking water.

“We have talked about infrastructure for more than a decade, nationally,” Neal said. “Joe Biden got it done.”

And, he noted, Biden got it done with Walsh’s help.

“At the same time you needed a great advocate within the administration and that is clearly Secretary Walsh,” Neal said.

The feeling is mutual, with Walsh pointing out that both infrastructure and Build Back Better were largely written in Neal’s committee.

“Chairman Neal had a lot to do with this. His fingerprints are all over this bill,” Walsh said.

Walsh said the setting was appropriate, a passenger platform at Springfield Union Station just as passengers prepared to board an Amtrak train for Hartford and New Haven.

Neal spearheaded a 40-year effort to revitalize the historic station into an intermodal transit hub. First opened 1926, Union Station was closed for decades before reopening in 2017 following a $103 million in work.

“Right here where we are standing is what infrastructure means, good jobs and great communities,” he said.

Walsh is a longtime labor leader. He said the jobs created in infrastructure are high-paying and cannot be outsourced.

He said the Biden administration is monitoring very carefully the impact of COVID-19 on the labor market.

But he could also rattle off the success the administration has had.

The number of Americans filing for unemployment last week was the smallest since 1969, Walsh said, Unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2%, the fastest year-to-date decline in unemployment on record.

The nation has added nearly six million jobs this year — the most of any first year U.S. president in history.

Inflation persists, however. But Walsh said the two pieces of legislation — infrastructure and the pending Build Back Better — are unconnected to inflation in the economy. The White House points to provisions in the laws that will help by improving transportation and removing bottlenecks and in the case of Build Back Better, providing child care, capping health care expenses including insulin.

Neal added that inflation is also seen around the world.

“No one, through all of this, has repealed the laws of supply and demand,” Neal said. “What you are seeing , here in Europe and elsewhere, is pent up demand.”

Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, spoke of how the child care provisions of Build Back Better would help unstick the labor markets.

“People want to go to work,” Sarno said. “But they can’t get child care, so they don’t go.”

He welcomed Walsh’s enthusiasm for the infrastructure plan.

“Mayors get it,” Sarno said. “Mayors know how to get things done.”

On a political note, Walsh deflected when asked about running for governor, reminding reporters that he thought he had a great job as mayor of Boston before Biden brought him into the cabinet in January. His focus is now on being labor secretary.

Original story HERE.