{"id":27842,"date":"2025-05-21T18:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=27842"},"modified":"2025-05-21T18:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:21:18","slug":"watch-sen-ossoff-urges-trump-administration-to-support-blue-bird-manufacturing-in-middle-georgia","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/watch-sen-ossoff-urges-trump-administration-to-support-blue-bird-manufacturing-in-middle-georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Sen. Ossoff Urges Trump Administration to Support Blue Bird Manufacturing in Middle Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. <\/strong>\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today pressed the Trump Administration\u2019s Energy Secretary to support Blue Bird\u2019s manufacturing expansion in Fort Valley, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing today, Sen. Ossoff pressed<\/a> Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright to continue supporting Blue Bird\u2019s manufacturing work in Middle Georgia. The Trump Administration has canceled or delayed grants nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Sen. Ossoff, alongside Senator Reverend Warnock and Congressman Sanford Bishop (GA-02), helped deliver<\/a> a historic $80 million Federal grant to Blue Bird to expand its manufacturing facilities and to help build electric school buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is growing demand from local school districts for electric school buses for all kinds of good reasons, and the Blue Bird Corporation wants to get in on this and be able to meet that market demand. They’ve invested $80 million of private capital to retool an aging manufacturing facility \u2014 to produce those electric school buses. That was met, matched by an $80 million Federal grant from the Department of Energy,\u201d Sen. Ossoff said to Energy Secretary Wright.<\/strong> \u201cWhat I want to convey to you is how important this is to Middle Georgia. This is is one of the most storied and successful companies in Georgia history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Blue Bird won the Federal grant, the Peach County Industrial Development Authority announced<\/a> it as \u201can awesome WIN for our community.\u201d Fort Valley Mayor Jeffrey Lundy said<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s a celebration day. \u2026 not only will [Fort Valley] be a place for people to come but will be affording more opportunities for them to have sit-down restaurants, have more entertainment, things of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Fort Valley Councilman and former Blue Bird employee Alonzo Allen said<\/a>, \u201cnormally when Blue Bird grows, the city of Fort Valley grows and that\u2019s the way it always has worked. When Blue Bird goes down, the city goes down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to watch Sen. Ossoff\u2019s line of questioning<\/strong><\/a>.<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Please find a transcript of Sen. Ossoff\u2019s remarks and questioning below:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEN. OSSOFF:<\/strong> \u201cI want to raise one more key Georgia concern with you. Are you familiar with the Blue Bird Corporation? Most famous school bus in the world, Blue Bird, made in Georgia. We\u2019re proud of it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEC. WRIGHT:<\/strong> \u201cI recognize the name. But no, no, okay, made in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEN. OSSOFF: <\/strong>\u201cThere is growing demand from local school districts for electric school buses for all kinds of good reasons, and the Blue Bird Corporation wants to get in on this and be able to meet that market demand. They’ve invested $80 million of private capital to retool an aging manufacturing facility \u2014 to produce those electric school buses. That was met, matched by an $80 million Federal grant from the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd similarly, and again, I frankly, don’t need, don’t have time, with all due respect, for the big picture on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I sort of understand the talking points on that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I want to convey to you is how important this is to Middle Georgia. This is, this is one of the most storied and successful companies in Georgia history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen this grant was awarded, the Peach County Industrial Development Authority called it \u2018an awesome win for our community.\u2019 Fort Valley Mayor Jeffrey Lundy said, \u2018it\u2019s celebration day.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGot a quote from a councilman here who said that when Blue Bird goes up, Fort Valley goes up, when Blue Bird goes down, Fort Valley goes down. And again, we’ve got private capital that’s been hazarded, that’s been invested, an expectation, a lot of commercial decisions that have been made assuming the Federal government will make good on its commitments for funds it has obligated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen can Blue Bird expect an answer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEC. WRIGHT<\/strong>: \u201cThis summer, I think, is the timeframe that we’ll get you …\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEN. OSSOFF<\/strong>: \u201cThis summer like June? This summer, like July? This summer, like August?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEC. WRIGHT<\/strong>: \u201cI can’t get you that date right now, but it’ll be done this summer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEN. OSSOFF<\/strong>: \u201cAnd you understand, Mr. Secretary, the cost of prolonged uncertainty, especially for these private companies, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEC. WRIGHT<\/strong>: \u201cI do. And if you reviewed the portfolio of things I’ve looked at that don’t check the boxes you talked about, you’d understand why I can’t just send out hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to bridges to nowhere.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEN. OSSOFF<\/strong>: \u201cI’m asking to make good on obligations that have already been made to the State of Georgia. We’ll follow up on this directly as well. Thank you so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

# # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today pressed the Trump Administration\u2019s Energy Secretary to support Blue Bird\u2019s manufacturing expansion in Fort Valley, Georgia. In a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing today, Sen. Ossoff pressed Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright to continue supporting Blue Bird\u2019s manufacturing work in Middle Georgia. The […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27842","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27846,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/27842\/revisions\/27846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}