The Hill
BY CHRIS SPEAR AND REP. EARL BLUMENAUER (D-ORE.), OPINION CONTRIBUTORS February 10, 2021 For half of a century, America has been spinning its wheels by failing to meet the challenge of investing in infrastructure. Our crumbling roads and bridges year after year, example after disturbing example, paint a picture of America falling apart and falling behind. Once the finest in the world, America’s infrastructure has instead become a visible symbol of our challenges of governance. In the coming months, the American Society of Civil Engineers will issue its updated scorecard on American infrastructure. The scorecard is sure to again document our lack of progress in meeting perhaps the most visible challenge a government faces: funding and financing infrastructure. However, we are optimistic that the landscape is shifting. There is no issue on Capitol Hill with as much unity and cooperation than exists for infrastructure. Business and labor, truckers and bicyclists, transit agencies and highway users are all united on improving America’s infrastructure. These diverse interests have successfully created consensus within the halls of Congress, too, about the need to renew and rebuild America. That rebuilding — investing in our nation’s roadways — would provide tangible improvements in the daily lives of most Americans, and for trucking alone, reduced congestion would improve productivity, safety, and help the environment by eliminating up to 67 million tons of CO2 annually caused by trucks sitting in traffic.
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