At the beginning of this year, the US Congress again received a request from industry trade associations for more spending. This is not news in and of itself since most years it makes this request but this year the situation is even tougher.
According to Tom Donahue, CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, there will be more than just the stimulus endeavors Joe Biden is offering. He pointed out that:
“We can also stimulate the economy in a major way if we finally do the long overdue and broadly supported work of rebuilding our infrastructure. It’s the number one way to raise productivity, create jobs, and drive up incomes in a hurry. Our lawmakers should enact a fiscally and environmentally responsible infrastructure package that focuses on urgent needs like roads and bridges, modernizes our critical networks, and upgrades and expands technology like broadband. Even in a 50-50 Senate and a House divided by five votes, this can be done—and it might build some goodwill for bipartisan progress on other priorities. We’ve been working on this for more than 20 years. Let’s find a way to pay for it, and let’s get moving. This year, there can be no excuses for failure.”
In addition, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released a series of Failure to Act reports as a prelude to the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure version. This was an investigation into the metal and concrete-intensive construction, surface transportation, electricity, waterway systems, airports and more. The summary found:
“The total documented cumulative investment gap between projected needs and likely investment in these critical major infrastructure systems is more than $2.6 trillion by 2029, and more than $5.6 trillion by 2039”