Secretary Foxx to Congress: Raise Your Sights
September 9th, 2015 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx speaks at the National Press Club; 9/9/15 – Photo by ASCE
Congress’ Infrastructure To Do List for Fall
September 3rd, 2015 | By: Infrastructure Report Card
Summer comes to an end next week as Congress returns to the Capitol after a five-week recess. Deadlines will be the theme this fall, with the first being the Oct. 1 funding deadline to keep the government open. The second important deadline for ASCE is Oct. 29, when MAP-21, the surface transportation bill, expires. With a D+ cumulative GPA, the topic of America’s infrastructure should be at the top of their to-do lists. Congress has several opportunities to address some of the nation’s infrastructure needs in the coming weeks. Here’s what to watch: 1. Transportation Before the U.S. Senate adjourned for August recess, they passed the DRIVE Act, a six-year surface transportation bill. The DRIVE Act would end the current cycle of short-term program extensions and increase federal funding for surface transportation programs. The U.S. House of Representatives has until a new deadline of October 29 to act to pass their own multi-year bill before the current law expires. ASCE has been focused on communicating with House members on the need to act quickly and pass a long-term bill. You can help by contacting your House members and urging them to #FixTheTrustFund. 2. Appropriations for Federal Infrastructure Programs So far this year, the House has only passed six of 12 annual appropriations bills and the Senate has not yet passed a single one. There is an Oct. 1 deadline to complete this year’s appropriation. Among the major dilemmas holding up the appropriations process are disagreements over the overall funding amounts for the federal government, policy riders that bog down spending bills and fundamental differences on what level to fund federal environmental, healthcare and military programs. While it’s difficult enough for Congress to fund popular established bipartisan programs like the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving funds (which are facing 23% cuts), newer programs, like the Levee Safety Initiative, have not received any funding since the Water Resources Reform & Development Act (WRRDA) passed. If these programs do not receive appropriations, then the progress made by creating them becomes stagnant and no real progress is made in addressing the infrastructure the legislation aimed to improve. With only 12 days to debate the remaining appropriations bills and take full chamber votes, Congress will resort to passing a short-term extension of federal government programs at the same funding levels as last fiscal year. These patches – also known as continuing resolutions – have become the common fallback solution where such large disagreements – even among members in the same party – impede the “regular order” appropriations process from working. 3. STEM and Science To ensure we have enough engineers to be stewards of our nation’s infrastructure in the future, we need to educate today’s students in STEM. Congress will return with competing legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); the last version was known as the No Child Left Behind Act, which would make changes to STEM education policies. The House version, known as the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), has been a purely partisan affair from the beginning, and passed the House with no Democratic Support. The Senate version, known as the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 (S. 1177), is a bipartisan compromise measure which passed that chamber with wide support. The House bill makes significant cuts to educational programs and places no emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. The Senate bill includes a focus on improving learning in the critical STEM subjects. ASCE, as a founding member of the STEM Education Coalition, strongly favors the Senate bill. It remains to be seen if House Republicans will be willing to compromise enough to move the legislation. Also facing the House/Senate divide is legislation to reauthorize the America COMPETES Act, which authorizes most of the nation’s non-medical, civilian research and development programs. The House passed H.R. 1806, the America COMPETES Act Reauthorization, earlier this year along the same partisan divide on their education bill. The House bill has been strongly condemned ASCE and other engineering, scientific, academic, and industry groups for making cuts to several areas including geosciences, as well as altering the National Science Foundation’s time-tested peer review method of awarding grants. The Senate Commerce Committee is meanwhile struggling to reach a bi-partisan compromise. Both pieces of legislation are long overdue and needed going forward, however if past performance is any indication then success is unlikely. This summer the Senate demonstrated that they can make infrastructure legislation a priority by passing the DRIVE Act. Now it’s time for that momentum to carry into the fall. Tell your members of Congress to make infrastructure a priority through the Save America’s Infrastructure phone app for iPhone and Android or online.States DIY to Fix Infrastructure
August 21st, 2015 | By: Olivia Wolfertz
In these last weeks of August, while Congress is on recess, there has been a great deal of dialogue and action among states regarding their need to fund their local transportation needs. This week, AP released an article expressing states’ reactions to the lack of federal funding for state transportation projects. Several states are taking the initiative to raise billions of dollars through higher fuel taxes, vehicle fees, and bonds to repair aging bridges and roads that will relieve traffic congestion. According to the AP, at least half of our states have now passed transportation funding measures since 2013. “I don’t know of a state that’s not having the conversation about raising revenue for transportation,” said Iowa Transportation Director Paul Trombino III. In 2015 alone, 14 states have raised their gas taxes to fund their state infrastructure projects, and others are considering similar measures. In addition to legislative action, states are beginning to take more creative approaches to funding their infrastructure. In Michigan, some residents are taking matters into their own hands and have raised more than $4,400 filling potholes themselves. Other initiatives to make up for lacking federal funds include House Bill 4608, which would move $60 million from Indian Gaming Compact into the Michigan Transportation Fund. While Michigan serves as a good example of frustrated citizens working together to do whatever is necessary to improve their roads, it’s not the only state that is fed up with infrastructure conditions. Tennessee, California and others are also taking measures to raise money for roads. And roads are not the only issue that our drivers are facing—as water main breaks continue to erupt throughout our major cities and suburbs. In order to see improvement, it is essential that Congress work diligently in the next three months to find a long-term funding solution for surface transportation. You can write your representative a letter or call their office and share the message to #FixTheTrustFund by the Oct 29 deadline.Congress needs a touchdown; no more field goals!
August 14th, 2015 | By: Olivia Wolfertz
Football season has unofficially launched, and hopefully from now on punts will remain on the field and outside of Congress. While Congress is back home for summer recess, many states are expressing their opinions about the lack of federal funding as more infrastructure needs rise to the surface. In Nebraska, Senator Deb Fischer and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx hosted an event focused on transportation projects in the states. The secretary expressed encouragement that the Senate passed a long-term funding bill at the end of July, while still pressed for the need of more funding. In order to ensure that state projects continue, Nebraska’s Department of Roads established a yearlong agreement with the Federal Highway Administration that “will allow Nebraska to initiate maintenance and rehabilitation projects more easily throughout the 100,000 miles of roads and 15,500 bridges that cross the state.” Nebraska isn’t the only state expressing frustration with of the uncertainty of federal transportation funding. Pennsylvania, the state with the highest number of structurally deficient bridges in the country, is likewise struggling to invest in much-needed projects. Wyoming is unable to carry out many of their projects without more federal funds, as they receive 66 percent of their capital program budget from the federal government. The Mississippi Bridge is in need of upgrades, but the project is sitting on the sidelines because while Illinois is ready to start the project, Missouri cannot contribute its half of the funds. Bloomberg View also published an editorial this week pleading Congress to pass a long-term bill with reliable funding, and endorses raising the federal gas tax to match inflation. While dwindling federal transportation funding stalls progress on state highway projects, highways are not the only category of infrastructure that needs federal funds. In Tennessee, the replacement lock for the Chickamauga Dam is in limbo because it has not been able to get funding fast enough to get the project completed. This is just one of many examples of the importance of the federal role in infrastructure investment. While your U.S. Representative is back in the district, take a few minutes to send a letter or call their office and share the message to #FixTheTrustFund by the Oct 29 deadline.USDOT to Public: #ShowUsYourInfraWear
August 7th, 2015 | By: Olivia Wolfertz
With Congress on recess and the new short-term highway patch hourglass beginning to slowly sieve, the symptoms of our nation’s aging infrastructure are gaining more attention from the media and states. Just this week, a subway train derailed in Washington, D.C., causing extreme delays for daily commuters. In response to the ubiquity of worn out infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Transportation launched an Instagram and Twitter campaign, asking Americans to submit photos of worn-out infrastructure in their local communities with the hashtag #ShowUsYourInfraWear. The goal is to highlight the most pressing infrastructure needs that inconvenience the American public and they could be fixed if there were a long-term surface transportation bill. On a legislative note, Senator Tom Carper from Delaware introduced a bill—believed to be the first-ever to use a hashtag in the bill title. This bill would incrementally increase the gas tax over the next four years, resulting in a 16-cents-per-gallon increase by 2020 that would then be tied to inflation. “At a time when gas prices are some of the lowest we’ve seen in recent memory, we should be willing to make the hard choice to raise the federal gas tax,” Carper said, in regards to the need to produce long-term funding to #FixTheTrustFund. With long-term funding, not only would infrastructure needs be met, but the opportunity to invest in infrastructure projects, as identified in #GameChangers, would arise. This past Thursday was the 101st anniversary of the traffic light, which stood as one of the original game changers of our transportation world. If we want to see more innovations continue to improve our society, we need to be willing to make the investment. It is essential that Congress work diligently in the next three months to find a long-term funding solution for surface transportation. You can write your representative a letter or call their office and share the message to #FixTheTrustFund by the Oct 29 deadline.Despite Senate Transportation Action, House Stymies Progress
July 30th, 2015 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Sens. Inhofe (R-OK) and Boxer (D-CA) led Senate efforts on approving the DRIVE Act
#GameChangers Trend – Ridesharing And Transit Apps
July 29th, 2015 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Traffic jams and project backlogs aren’t problems that will be going away any time soon as the Highway Trust Fund is once again headed towards insolvency. However, in spite of a lack of federal support for better transportation networks, some innovations are propelling transportation into new areas and changing the game as we know it. The prolific growth of rideshare services as well as the accompanying user apps are revolutionizing the transport industry. Rideshare platforms, like Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, and others, are connecting riders to drivers through new technology platforms. Perhaps more importantly, cities and states are forming productive partnerships with these services for data-sharing which could shape the future of transportation. Here are two #GameChangers that are worth knowing: Crowd-sourcing traffic app aids transportation agencies Waze is rapidly gaining popularity as a navigation and “traffic avoidance” app, using real-time traffic and construction information to recommend the fastest route to your destination. Waze works using a crowd-sourcing functionality, meaning that it depends on users to report and verify traffic incidents and other scenarios that could slow down your trip. There are side benefits to this data-rich app for local and state transportation agencies, and Waze has begun no-cost data-sharing agreements with at least 30 public sector partners. Waze offers anonymous traffic data via a live feed in exchange for information from the agencies such as construction closures that will improve the accuracy of their app information for travelers. Local transportation agencies in Los Angeles are getting creative with the uses for the data, including using the app to report and respond more rapidly to potholes and rerouting buses based on real-time information. Uber Partners to Help Cities – Boston, MA Uber has proliferated across U.S. cities, dispatching cars owned and operated by practically anyone. Waze Connected citizens Program is increasingly gaining popularity as the “traffic avoidance app” that provide live feed of traffic incidents and road closures with drivers and government partners. Uber’s technology reduce traffic congestion, as an immediate transportation option with a GPS installed map on every app. Not only that, Uber’s Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) keeps track the traffic flows in the city with traffic volume counts and the speed of traffic. On second week of January, 2015, Uber announced the first of its kind partnership with the city of Boston to provide traffic data from dates and times of trips, zip codes, distance traveled and trip’s duration. Boston is planning to use this information to manage traffic congestion, evaluate the impact of incidents, and zone changes to parking spots. The city of Los Angeles are partnering up with Waze Connected Citizens Program, and will be using its crowd-sourcing functionality to respond immediately to live road conditions. The cities’ data-sharing partnership with transportation applications will commit to traffic planning and congestion reduction. Every day, new Infrastructure #GameChangers are changing how we build and use infrastructure. ASCE collected these game changing trends in energy, freight, transportation and water infrastructure into an interactive, web-based report at ASCEGameChangers.org. Find out more here, share these trends on social media using #GameChangers, or submit your own #GameChangers project!#FixTheTrustFund: Senate Dodging Potholes
July 27th, 2015 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Two weeks ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would fund federal transportation projects through mid-December to avoid the July 31 legislative deadline. While this would divert a summer construction catastrophe, delaying Congressional agreement on a multi-year path forward is not an ideal option because short-term extensions make it difficult to plan and build multi-year transportation projects. This week the U.S. Senate is attempting to complete work on a bipartisan, long-term bill and get it over to the House for their consideration before July 31. Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) managed to steer the bill away from legislative potholes that threatened to slow passage of the bill. The Senate defeated an amendment to the transportation bill that would have repealed Obamacare and voted to debate reauthorization of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank and possibly attach it to the six-year highway & transit bill. Tonight we expect a final vote on attaching Ex-Im to the bill (which many anticipate will be approved) followed by a vote to end debate on the transportation bill and move towards final passage of the legislation by mid-week. The Senate bill:- Provides six years of policy reforms and contract authority for highways and transit programs, thus ending the cycle of short-term, multi-month program extensions;
- Provides three years of dedicated revenue to the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) so states can deliver more long-term projects;
- Increases funding levels for highway, transit and passenger rail programs in order to reduce our nation’s maintenance and construction backlog;
- Provides for a new national dedicated freight program to improve goods movement; and
- Contains bipartisan permitting reforms that would set deadlines for project decisions, increase transparency and reduce litigation delays.
- Contact your members of Congress via letter or phone call: Send your legislators a quick note or call them and urge their immediate support!
- Communicate with your members of Congress via social media: Most members of Congress have Facebook and Twitter pages. In addition to calling or writing a letter, urge them to #FixTheTrustFund on social media.
- Ask others to take action: Use the text in this blog to Send your friends, family, and coworkers an email asking them to contact their members of Congress. Don’t forget to add a sentence or two about why passage of a long-term transportation bill is important to you.
It’s the Final Countdown
July 24th, 2015 | By: Olivia Wolfertz
With one week left until the Highway Trust Fund expires, the Senate is kicking it into high gear to agree on a long-term surface transportation bill, even when it means working weekends. ASCE supports swift passage of the bill the Senate is currently considering, which includes, at its core, ASCE’s favored legislation the DRIVE Act, creates at least three years of solvency for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), and includes safety provisions and transit policy. While the bill does not increase the gas tax, it does add revenue to the Highway Trust Fund that will provide three years of certain funding. On Thursday, TRIP, a transportation research group, released a new report that found 28 percent of major urban roads are in poor condition. The largest urban areas with the worst roads are San Francisco-Oakland and Los Angeles-Long Beach. On a brighter note, ASCE just released its #GameChangers report on Thursday to showcase some of the top trends in energy, freight, transportation and water that are paving the way for new innovative infrastructure projects. These game changing trends are examples of what is possible when communities invest, and serve as a reminder of the importance of prioritizing infrastructure at all levels of government. One of the projects featured in #GameChangers, the Lady Bird tunnel-boring machine, had a particularly big week. The machine that had been digging four-and-a-half miles beneath the Anacostia River tunnel system for the past two years finished its work and resurfaced. This revolutionary project is testimony to the infrastructure wonders that can be accomplished with increased investment and ingenuity. Ultimately, without a long-term funding solution for the Highway Trust Fund, we will not be able to fully modernize our infrastructure. Take a few minutes to urge the Senate to work as quickly as possible to agree on a long-term funding solution. You can write your Senators a letter or call their office and share the message to #FixTheTrustFund by the July 31 deadline.Fix the Trust Fund: Now it’s the Senate’s Turn
July 20th, 2015 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Last Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend highway and transit programs until December 18, 2015 on a 312-119 vote. The House bill granted a $8.1 billion boost the Highway trust Fund (HTF) to keep it solvent past the looming July 31 deadline. This extension will fund surface transportation projects through the mid-December timeframe. The decision was reached, because extending the program is seen as a far better alternative than allowing the HTF to run out of money. “The last thing we want to do is see road construction stop at the beginning of August,” said Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee. This week the Senate will pursue an alternative approach, where a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell want to pass a long-term bill. Senate Republican leaders are trying to find money for a six-year bill, the DRIVE Act, which cleared the Environment and Public Works Committee a few weeks ago. The bill, S. 1647, would provide a twenty percent increase in funding over the course of six years and proposes reforms to improve freight movement, deliver large projects and streamline project delivery. The cycle of short-term extensions has blocked planning and delivery of major projects in several states, and even more states have announced that they will be forced to cancel and delay projects until the Congress enacts a multi-year bill. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said that uncertainty about highway funds has led to canceled projects in Georgia, Tennessee, Vermont, Delaware and Arkansas. He said that unless Congress acts to extend funding beyond the July 31 deadline, the U.S. Department of Transportation “will not have the authority to provide project sponsors with any additional contract authority for new or ongoing projects.” In early August, the balance of the Highway Trust Fund will drop below $4 billion which is when the reimbursement payments to states for completed projects will slow. The time is now to focus on the activity in the Senate and urge lawmakers to vote in favor of a long-term bill by the July 31 deadline. To help, you can:- Send a request today to meet with your members of Congress: Here are some helpful hints and how to set up a “back home” meeting.
- Contact your Senators via letter or phone call: If you can’t meet in person, send your Senators a quick letter or give their office a call and ask for the staff that handles transportation. Look up their number and get talking points here.
- Communicate with your member of Congress via social media: Most members of Congress have Facebook and Twitter pages. In addition to calling or writing a letter, urge them to #FixTheTrustFund on social media.
