“If you’re in the minority party, you don’t get to sponsor legislation,” he explained. “The best you can do is write amendments, and I’ve done that. And when we were in the majority, I’ve pushed major legislation. The Affordable Care Act was written in my committee.”
Doyle also objected to the characterization that he hasn’t done anything for the Black community. He noted that, with the elimination of earmarks, the only big pots of federal funding are Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery grants and Choice Neighborhood grants distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he has brought considerable amounts of each to his district, and to neighborhoods like the Hill District and East Liberty.
“I got $30 million for affordable housing in Larimer, I put the first $10 million into the Energy Innovation Center and there was $150 million for the East Liberty Transit Hub,” he said.
“I had the transportation secretary tour the (28-acre former) arena site, when we applied to get TIGER fund for the street grid, and he told me, ‘I’m interested in the cap idea to reconnect the neighborhood to downtown.’ I asked if that meant we should change the focus of our application,” he said. “I’m interested in the cap idea. So we changed the application and got $19 million. In the past five years, I’ve brought $45 million to the district.”
That’s the kind of thing Doyle says he does, he builds partnerships and relationships that don’t always have his name on them, but they get things done—like the free coder training program being run by the Pittsburgh Academy in Allentown.
“I want Pittsburgh to grow and do well,” he said. “There isn’t any part of the district I ignore.”
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