REBUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE

The Let’s Rebuild America initiative, announced by Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue in Irving, Texas, less than two weeks after the Minneapolis bridge collapse, is a response to the dramatic decline of the nation’s transportation, energy, communications, and water infrastructure systems.

 

"Growth and competitiveness cannot be sustained with our existing infrastructure platform," Donohue told the audience of transportation leaders. "Now is the time to move on a robust,thoughtful, and comprehensive plan to build, maintain, and fund a world-class 21st century infrastructure."

 

Let’s Rebuild America has four objectives:

 

Document the crisis
First, the Chamber will compile statistics and establish facts about the nation’s infrastructure in a booklet for Chamber members.

 

Second, the Chamber's public policy think tank,the National Chamber Foundation, is conducting a study on behalf of the Chamber's Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM) coalition illustrating and quantifying the role of transportation infrastructure to key industries including retail, agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

 

Finally, the Chamber has teamed with the RAND Corporation to benchmark the "D-Day" when U.S. infrastructure capacity caps economic growth. This report will include recommendations and a state-by-state assessment of infrastructure performance.

 

Through an aggressive communications program and a strong grassroots network, the Chamber will educate the business community, lawmakers, the public, and the media about the clear, quantifiable link between a strong and efficient infrastructure and the nation’s economic well-being and global competitiveness.

 

Unlock investment
The Chamber will identify and seek to reform rules, regulations, and policies that have locked up potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment just waiting to be spent on critically needed power plants, pipelines, refineries, transmission lines, broadband lines, port facilities, railroads, airports, and privately constructed roadways.

 

Let’s Rebuild America will pinpoint ways to cut wasteful spending and ensure that dedicated infrastructure dollars are not diverted to other programs. The Chamber will also consider ways to spur public funding, including a possible increase in the federal gasoline user fee.

 

Nearly every component of the nation’s infrastructure is underfunded and overworked. Road congestion costs the U.S. economy $63 billion annually in lost time and fuel, and poorly maintained roads contribute to a third of all highway fatalities.

 

Airline delays have hit record highs this year and are on target to cost more than $30 billion by year 2015 — more than three times the costof delays in 2000.

 

Railroads, ports, inland waterways, and transit systems are also overburdened. Railroads need nearly $200 billion in investment over the next 20 years to maintain existing infrastructure and to accommodate freight growth.

 

By 2020, every major U.S. container port is projected to at least double its volume of cargo. Transit investment is falling even as transit use increased faster than any other mode of transportation over a 10-year period ending in 2002.

 

Energy infrastructure is not capable of handling energy demand, which is expected to increase by a third between now and 2030. Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed over the next two decades to repair drinking and wastewater systems.

 

And the nation requires a stronger telecommunications system; the United States ranks just 15th in the world in broadband penetration.

 

 

To show your support for a stronger infrastructure, contact your members of Congress; sign up for the Chamber’s grassroots advocacy network at VoteForBusiness.com; join ATM, the Chamber-led coalition of transportation users and providers; or make a financial contribution through iSupportBusiness.com.