Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday boasted about his role in steering a massive federal grant to Nevada to rehabilitate parts of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.

Reid, who has never been shy about his love of sending money back to his home state, said the Department of Transportation will award a $16.4 million grant to revamp the runway and taxiway at the airport.

Reid said that he's played a pivotal role for years in ensuring the airport received federal funds for upkeep. In 2009, he inserted a provision in the stimulus bill that allowed money to be directed to state and local governments. Reid said he also "got an earmark" for the construction of a new airport control tower as well as funding to boost the number of Transportation Security Administration agents at the Vegas airport.

"The airport is the lifeblood of southern Nevada's economy," Reid said Friday. "Maintaining our status as the world's premier tourist destination is contingent on having a world-class airport. I will continue to do everything I can so that the 40 million visitors traveling to Las Vegas each year, and its residents, have a safe and enjoyable experience."

Reid didn't mention the airport by name. Earlier this summer, Reid has repeatedly called for renaming the airport after someone other than former Nevada Sen. Patrick McCarran, a Democrat who helped author early aviation regulations but who Reid said was anti-Semitic.

"Pat McCarran was one of the most anti-Semitic — some of you might know my wife's Jewish — one of the most anti-black, one of the most prejudiced people who has ever served in the Senate," Reid said in 2012, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Reid also wants McCarran's statue in the Capitol removed.