This is an opinion column.

Many will certainly see it as a bridge to nowhere. Especially these days. Democratic and Republican politicians shaking hands, sitting down, getting to know each other. What would that accomplish? Especially in this state—where the gap between parties is cavernous, and efforts to entrench and reinforce it are so overt, so glaring, so rooted in our wrenching past the U.S. Supreme Court is now all up in it.

Alabama Democrat and Republican politicians talking to each other, sharing ideas and desires. Listening to each other. Who does that?

They did: A contingent of Birmingham’s solidly Democratic political leadership and several members of the state’s overwhelmingly Republican federal congressional delegation did—last week in Washington, D.C., during the 51st Annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference, a.k.a., the Super Bowl of Black politics.

The Birmingham group included Mayor Randall Woodfin, City Council President Wardine Alexander, Council Pro Tem Crystal Smitherman, and Councilors LaTonya Tate, Clinton Woods, JT Moore, and Darrell O’Quinn. They variously connected with Republicans: Sen. Richard Shelby (the delegation’s retiring patriarch), Cong. Robert Aderholt, Cong. Jerry Carl, and even Sen. Tommy Tuberville, along with staffers from Rep. Gary Palmer.

Talk about strange hallfellows. Lord knows the encounters could have gone left (and right) had someone brought up, oh, CRT, women’s reproductive rights, gun reform, voting rights, or any manner of issues over which the two parties so widely diverge. By all accounts, though, the cause was common: cash.

Bridge building. To money—to the billions in federal dollars doled out to states and cities throughout the nation each year—no matter which party sits in the White House. To the “the robust list of federal grants we will be pursuing over the next year,” Woodfin shared after returning, “with the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal investment in Birmingham in the years to come.”

It was the first CBC experience for most of the councilors, their initiation, as it were, navigating the dawn-to-dang-near-dawn whirlwind of Capitol Hill speed meetings (no more than 30 minutes), hallway run-ins, cocktail receptions, meetings, topical seminars and workshops, formal sit-down dinners, parties, run-ins, afterparties. You get the idea.

“You’ve got to have, like, backup batteries,” said O’Quinn, one of the rooks.

CBC is about access. Access and parties. It’s bumping into leading political, business, and entertainment figures whom you might never meet. It’s forging contacts. Making deals. And parties.

Of course, the Birmingham crew got facetime with Rep. Terri Sewell, the only African American representing Alabamians in the nation’s capital. And only Democrat. Both in her office and at a reception she hosted. They also met, mixed, and mingled with other political, business, and entertainment luminaries and advocates.

Tate, another rookie, termed CBC a “ground-breaking experience.” She met Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter, who advocates for women who’ve been formerly incarcerated, a group near and dear to the heart of the council’s public safety committee. “It gave me hope to learn that the President has allocated millions of dollars into community safety, and mental health treatment.”

Smitherman attended a panel highlighting Black storytellers in the entertainment industry, moderated by Symone Sanders, former spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris, and featuring actors and writers from shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Empire; and a discussion among Black women celebrating 50 years of leadership since Cong. Shirly Chisholm’s historic 1972 presidential run as the first Black candidate to pursue a major-party nomination.

The first panel was “super valuable,” coming just after the council approved funding to support Black creatives in the city. “The panel on Black women speaks for itself for me as a young Black female politician.”

Those were mere hors d’oeuvres; the main course was in the meet-n-greets.

Since Woodfin took office in 2017, the city has banked more than $433 million in “above baseline” federal money, according to his office. Those are funds beyond basic perennial allocations and cost-of-living increases. Here’s the breakdown: American Rescue Plan Homelessness support ($5.1 million), Cares Act ($9 million), Good Jobs grant ($10.8 million), BJCTA public transit ($13.6 million), Emergency Rental Assistance ($25 million), Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport ($30 million), ARP ($140 million), Birmingham Public Schools COVID-19 assistance ($199 million).

Much of the bounty is driven by Woodfin’s close relationship with the White House and Cong. Sewell, who’s represented House District 7 since 2011 and sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Her region includes Birmingham, a city still afflicted by poverty and the draining economic effects of history, parts (the Black parts) of Montgomery and Tuscaloosa; and rural areas with dire needs that passed desperate decades ago. Sewell, according to her office, helped secure more than $11.5 billion in federal grants to entities throughout the district and—as she gleefully reminds us—is the only member of the Alabama delegation to vote for voluminous bills passed under Biden. (They gladly accept the money, though, and spend it in their districts.)

The Birmingham brigade went to D.C. to ensure future funds aren’t left in the bucket because of partisanship—no matter which party sits in the White House.

“Most of our appropriations come through Congresswoman Sewell, but we’d like to build relationships on the Senate side so we can get some of those, Alexander said. “[CBC] was an opportunity to knock on doors and make ourselves visible. It’s starting to create relationships—to let them know: Don’t forget Birmingham, we are here.”

She specifically noted funds related to transportation, broadband, roads, and money allocated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We’re just looking for a way to get some good appropriations coming our way. This was federal bridge building.”

“There are some high-level programs that we’re going to be going after to pursue funding,” says O’Quinn. He’s eyeing provisions offered in the little-discussed CHIPS and Science Act, signed by Biden in August that allocated $280 billion to expand semiconductor manufacturing, invest in research and development, and create regional high-tech hubs. “There is $10 billion to establish twenty new innovation centers in mid-tier cities across the United States—$500 million per city. Birmingham is very well positioned to get some of that funding.”

Said Woodfin: “With guidance from our internal government affairs team and external federal lobbying team, these conversations enable us to showcase our shared agenda for growing Birmingham’s economy for all of its residents, expanding affordable homeownership opportunities, enhancing public safety efforts, and exploring options to strengthen our schools.

Tuberville, not surprisingly, was particularly interested in the city’s police force and the future of Legion Field. Later, spokesperson Cody Sargent said: “The Senator is committed to representing all Alabamians, and his main duty as a United States Senator is to serve the people of Alabama. As such, our office will meet with any constituent and assess if we may be able to assist on the federal level — without giving a thought to their political affiliation.”

With Shelby’s departure, Tuberville will become the state’s senior U.S. Senator, with just a single term on his resume. In that time, he’s taken a very-Republican hard line on spending, which may not best serve the state and worries O’Quinn.

“The thing Tuberville has got to figure out is that Alabama is a state that very much depends on federal support,” he said. “We can’t have senators that don’t request appropriations. It’s one thing to say you’re a fiscal conservative out on the campaign trail, but when you’re sitting down with representatives from municipalities: We’re looking for help. We expect you to be advocating for us and to help us meet our needs.”

O’Quinn was concerned about navigating the phalanx of humanity occupying the nation’s capital for the CBC, so he arrived early for the meeting with Shelby. “I went to Shelby’s office and sat down and waited for the mayor’s team to come,” he recalled. Just outside the office, alas, Woodfin caught the senator, who was set to be on the floor for a critical vote to avoid a government shutdown.

“Apparently,” O’Quinn said, “as the mayor was walking in, they met Shelby in the hall and talked for a few minutes. So, I missed him.”

Perhaps he’ll cross that bridge next time.

More columns by Roy S. Johnson

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Roy S. Johnson is a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and winner of 2021 Edward R. Murrow prize for podcasts: “Unjustifiable”, co-hosted with John Archibald. His column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Press-Register. Reach him at [email protected], follow him at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj.