Think Tank Presses Presidential Candidates on Infrastructure
With the 2016 presidential contest capturing the country’s attention, a prominent Washington, D.C., think tank reminded the candidates to carry out pro-infrastructure plans when one of them enters the White House in January.
“With the fundamental importance that infrastructure has for our health, safety, economic mobility and more, we urge you to make modernizing America’s infrastructure a central feature of your campaigns, and, if elected, a priority within your first 100 days of office,” the Bipartisan Policy Center leaders wrote in a July 14 letter to the candidates.
The center stressed that infrastructure nationwide, from rails and bridges to airports and pipelines, is “becoming liabilities rather than sources of strength” as a result of years of neglect.
The center’s leaders, consisting of former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), proposed enhancing public-private partnerships to finance new infrastructure projects. The partnerships, known as P3s, would connect government agencies with investors seeking to capitalize on public works.
The plan, Barbour, Cantor and others wrote, would seek to “empower states and local communities into innovative partnerships suited to their unique needs, creating an environment that welcomes private capital rather than pushing it away.”
Donald Trump, the presidential nominee for the Republicans, noted an acumen for fixing deteriorating infrastructure without presenting specifics. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee, has proposed a five-year, $275 billion plan aimed at boosting infrastructure investments and freight connectivity projects.
The degree in which the country’s infrastructure has deteriorated was reviewed by the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2013, the group of engineers graded the status of the infrastructure a D-plus.
