September 19, 2013
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously approved the $10 billion Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRDA), H.R. 3080, today. The mark up of the legislation went smoothly with limited debate on amendments. During mark-up several members of the committee provided amendments to speed up the expenditure of funds out of the Harbor Maintenance......
September 11, 2013
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (H.R. 3080) with much fanfare today. As the title proves, the bill is one of the most policy and reform focused Water Resources Development Acts (WRDA) to be introduced in the past few decades. Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA)......
September 10, 2013
Congress returned from its August recess yesterday to a mountain of unfinished business. With 22 days remaining in the fiscal year, Congress plans to go all in and be in session for nine of them. Nine days to: Avoid a government shut down by passing a FY 2014 budget; Address the federal debt limit or......
FutureStructure – Looking at the Future of Infrastructure and Us
September 06, 2013
What do we want and need from our infrastructure in a hyper-connected, modern world? ASCE has partnered with Governing magazine and others to consider what “FutureStructure” means and how we can get there. The goal of FutureStructure is to help public sector leaders think more like system engineers and get past the constraints of......
This Week’s Top 5 Infrastructure Stories
September 06, 2013
ASCE Report Card Chair Writes for PBS on Infrastructure’s Present and Future Expanding cities, global businesses, and an interconnected world mean that people need to travel to more places than ever before. Cities cannot prosper in isolation, and businesses cannot thrive if they cannot move goods effectively. As our nation continues to grow, so too......
ASCE Attends National Conference of State Legislatures in Atlanta
August 27, 2013
A few weeks ago I went down to Atlanta, GA to help ASCE participate in the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) annual Legislative Summit. The meeting is the largest gathering of state legislators held each year and was attended by nearly 5,000 people. One of the things I did there was to exhibit at......
Senate Appropriations Committee Looking at Inland Waterways Funding
August 19, 2013
Senate appropriators are taking a look at overhauling the way that the federal government collects fees for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. The committee is considering tossing out the current 20 cent diesel fuel tax, which brings in an estimated $170 million annually to pay for lock, dam, and dredging costs. As currently structured the......
ASCE President: Our nation’s infrastructure depends on public and private investment to thrive
August 13, 2013
On August 5, 2013, the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed that argued against the merits of public investment in infrastructure. The following is a response from ASCE President Greg DiLoreto: Our nation’s infrastructure depends on public and private investment to thrive Larry Schweikart and Burton Folsom’s editorial (Obama’s False History of Public Investment, Aug.......
Shuster and Gibbs Announce Plans for House to Consider WRRDA
August 05, 2013
On Friday, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA), along with Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-OH), revealed that the Committee will review and consider WRRDA (no, that is not a typo – see below) when Congress returns from recess in September. According to Reps. Shuster and Gibbs, the......
House Appropriators Postpone Action on EPA Sending Bill to September
August 01, 2013
After starting to write a spending bill for the Environmental Protection Agency for fiscal year 2014 this week, the House Appropriations Committee decided to delay final action on the controversial bill for more than a month. Committee members voted on several amendments this week and then recessed until September. “With the number of amendments pending,......