President Joe Biden announced Friday that the federal government would finance "100 percent of the cost" for rebuilding off-interstate bridges in small towns and rural areas, doing away with a previous requirement that communities share the cost. Professor Shana Kushner Gadarian says that these improvements could improve relations between the federal government and rural communities that have long felt left behind as economic opportunities dwindle. However, she emphasizes that the federal government must ensure that a community's residents understand that the infrastructure improvements came from Washington and not locally or from the state. "People need to make the connection between what they are getting and have it made very clear that the benefits that they're getting can be tied to government," Gadarian says. Read more in the Newsweek article, "Biden Promises Feds Will Pay for Entire Cost of Repairing Off-Interstate Bridges."