Senate Passes WRDA
May 15th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
ASCE applauds the Senate today for passing the Water Resources Development Act (S. 601). The 83 – 14 vote on final passage caps off a huge bipartisan effort from Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Ranking Member David Vitter (R-LA). The final $12 billion package includes several of ASCE top priorities for WRDA such as the reauthorization of the National Dam Safety Program, the creation of a National Levee Safety Program, the eventual move toward trust in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and reforms to accelerate project review and delivery. With Senate passage, attention now turns to the House, where things are moving at a slower pace. Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) has said his committee hopes to produce a bill by “summer-ish”, while some Republican aides have said that the committee hopes to take action in June on a WRDA package. For now ASCE is pleased to see that WRDA is out of the Senate and urges the House to not be too far behind.The Clean Water Act Turns 40!
October 18th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The Clean Water Act is 40 years old this week, and we are all so much better for it because it. As we near the end of 2012, we can look back and say we’ve made remarkable progress on cleaning up the nation’s waters. Forty years ago, people were afraid to swim or fish in our waters, our lakes and our rivers. And quite frankly, we didn’t have the resources to address the issue.
The Cuyahoga River in Ohio, which caught on fire and sparked the creation of the Clean Water Act. Courtesy Flickr/jborger
Check Out Our New "Failure to Act" Economic Report!
September 17th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Last Thursday, ASCE released its latest “Failure to Act” report on the economic impact of underinvestment in America’s infrastructure. In the report, we’ve projected a significant gap between planned investment and spending needs for the nation’s airports, marine ports, and inland waterways. With ports and inland waterways critical to our nation’s global competitiveness, the report forecasts investment falling $16 billion short of the $30 billion needed through 2020. For airports, there is a projected gap of $19 billion from a total need of $114 billion. Failing to meet the gaps creates a drag on the economy by causing congestion and delays for U.S. businesses that import and export goods, leading to higher transportation costs and causing the price of goods to rise. Read and download the full report. The fourth report in the Failure to Act series was released during two events in Washington, D.C., one for media members and another for Congressional staff. Both events were moderated by ASCE President Andy Herrmann, and joined by Virginia Port Authority Executive Director Jerry Bridges, and Rick Calhoun, President of Cargo Carriers. The event on Capitol Hill was highlighted by remarks from Congresswoman Janice Hahn (D-CA), co-chair and founder of the Ports Caucus. Previous Failure to Act reports have analyzed electricity, surface transportation, and drinking water and wastewater. Access the complete series at www.asce.org/failuretoact. You can view media coverage of the release below: America’s ailing ports invisible amid the country’s failing infrastructure Washington Post The estimate was presented Thursday in a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, a professional trade group that has commissioned a series of reports on the gap between current spending on infrastructure and the funding needed to repair or … Aging Port Infrastructure Threatens 1 Million U.S. Jobs, Says ASCE Dredging Today Aging infrastructure for marine ports, inland waterways, and airports threatens more than 1 million U.S. jobs according to a new Failure to Act report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)… American Society of Civil Engineers says U.S. jobs threatened by aging ports … Birmingham Business Journal A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers said jobs in the United States will be threatened unless maintenance of aging infrastructure for marine ports and inland waterways is properly funded. Billions in upgrades needed for ports, waterways, civil engineering group … Corpus Christi Caller Times The Failure to Act report, completed by the American Society of Civil Engineers warns that the country needs about $30 billion in infrastructure improvements to accommodate expanded international trade by 2020. That is about $16 billion more than what … Study shows port funding lax, but Manatee ahead of game Bradenton Herald That shortfall could create a drag on the U.S. economy to the tune of 1 million jobs and $700 billion worth of GDP by 2020, according to a report released Thursday by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The group lobbied for the federal government …
Tags: congress, infrastructure, ports, sustainability, water infrastructure
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New Report Shows Mississippi’s Infrastructure Needs a Different Approach
July 30th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
2012 Mississippi Infrastructure Report Card
Tags: civil engineers, economics, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, state report cards, transportation, wastewater, water infrastructure
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House Guts EPA Spending on Infrastructure to Curtail Regulations
June 22nd, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
A House subcommittee has approved a spending bill for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fiscal year 2013 that seeks to drastically cut back on new federal environmental rules through the simple expedient of imposing major budget cuts on the agency. In years past House Republicans used prohibitory language in appropriations acts to bar the EPA from spending money to write or carry out certain rules opposed by business interests.
Far easier now to simply eliminate funding for large parts of the agency’s programs. The $28 billion appropriations bill that was marked up in subcommittee on Wednesday provides only $7 billion for the EPA in FY 2013. This represents a 17 percent cut that would bring environmental funding to a level below the FY 1998 total. The bill caps the number of agency employees at their lowest level since 1992.
“The bill reins in funding and out-of-control regulation at the EPA and reduces overall spending for the third year in a row,” according to a press release from Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.
The bill reduces the EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund for wastewater infrastructure by $778 million, or more than half from FY 2012, to $689 million, and cuts the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund by $89 million to $829 million.
“Despite the hyperbole of some of my Republican friends, EPA programs and regulations did not cause this recession, and tying the hands of this important agency certainly won’t get us out — that idea is as fictional as recent reports of EPA
drones,” said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The bill adopts a new tack by House Republicans, who added numerous amendments to the FY 2012 act that were designed to roll back or limit EPA regulation. The Republican leadership had to pull the FY 2012 bill last year amid a surge of amendments. Republicans were forced to put the EPA spending bill in an omnibus appropriations measure that largely spared the agency from deep cuts.
AWWA Helps Build the Case for Investment in Water Infrastructure
February 28th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Our friends at the American Water Works Association (AWWA) have just released a new comprehensive report echoing the call for investment in water infrastructure. They found that the
massive investment needed for buried drinking-water infrastructure in the United States totals more than $1 trillion between now and 2035.
The need will double from roughly $13 billion a year today to almost $30 billion (in 2010 dollars) annually by the 2040s, and the cost will be met primarily through higher water bills and local fees, according to the AWWA report.
“Buried No Longer: Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge” is a call to action for utilities, consumers and policy makers and recognizes that the need to replace pipe in the ground “puts a growing stress on communities that will continue to increase for decades to come.”
The AWWA report reinforces the ASCE analysis released in December 2011 that concluded that a failure to increase investments in wastewater and drinking-water systems will have a devastating effect on the U.S. economy by 2020. However, the report found that a modest increase in investment can protect $416B in GDP, prevent 700,000 job losses, and avoid personal income losses of $541B.
ASCE’s report, Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Water and Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure, can be read here.
An ASCE Take on the State of the Union
January 24th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The President will be speaking before a Joint session of Congress and the American people tonight to discuss the State of the Union. The first State of the Union was delivered by President George Washington in January 1790 and since then has become a vehicle for a sitting President to outline his legislative agenda for the upcoming year. During last year’s State of the Union address President Obama discussed the nation’s infrastructure crisis and referenced ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure as a reason why action must be taken to repair and maintain our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, water systems, dams, and rail. While it is not likely that the Report Card will be reference two years in a row, ASCE still has a few things that we would like to hear President Obama discuss. ASCE hopes that President Obama calls on Congress to rebuild the infrastructure that once was the envy of the world and spur the innovative imagination that has historically defined this country. It is through a state of the art infrastructure and a growing number of students moving into fields like civil engineering, that America can ensure that the state of the our union will remain strong for years to come. Since last year’s State of the Union address Congress has only been able to extend the surface transportation and FAA programs, instead of pass critical reauthorization bills. Additionally, since last January the National Dam Safety Program has expired and drinking water and wastewater state revolving funds continue to operate off of a 1987 authorization. At a time when the nation needs to create jobs and grow the economy in order to remain competitive, funding the nation’s infrastructure and producing students who excel in math and the sciences can prove to be the key. Therefore, ASCE has defined several legislative priorities. First, we need to rebuild America to compete in the 21st Century. For that reason ASCE calls on President Obama and Congress to:- Pass a multi-year surface transportation bill at level funding.
- Finalize a FAA reauthorization in the next few weeks.
- Reauthorize the National Dam Safety Program for 5 years.
- Begin work on drinking water and wastewater SRF reauthorization bills in 2012.
- Take up a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that includes the creation of a national levee safety program.
- Pass legislation that would reauthorize the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program.
- Reauthorize the existing Math and Science Partnerships program at the Department of Education.
- Increase funding annual funding for NIST and NSF programs.
Tags: dams, hazards, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, transportation, water infrastructure
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ASCE Releases Economic Study on Nation’s Water Infrastructure
December 15th, 2011 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
ASCE is releasing a report today identifying the long-term consequences to the nation’s economy from failing to invest today in our aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. The report is the second in a four part series of economic studies assessing the impacts of continued underinvestment in the nation’s infrastructure systems. The report, Failure to Act: The Economic Impact of Current Investment Trends in Water and Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure, answers the question of how the condition of the nation’s deteriorating wastewater and drinking water infrastructure impinges on economic prosperity of American jobs, businesses, and entire sectors of the economy. In other words, how does a D- for water treatment identified ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure affect America’s economic future? The report’s results are sobering. Water infrastructure in the United States is aging, and investments have not kept pace with the escalating costs. In fact, the report finds that by 2020, the US will have fallen $84 billion short of the investments needed in our critical water systems. Even with the increased use of sustainable practices and cost-effective development of other efficiency methods, the growing gap between capital needs to maintain drinking-water and wastewater treatment infrastructure and investments to meet those needs will likely result in unreliable water service and inadequate wastewater treatment. However, if we close that gap and invest in our water infrastructure, we can prevent the following impacts by 2020:- $59 billion in increased costs to households
- $147 billion in increased costs to businesses
- $416 billion in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Loss of 700,000 jobs
