Infrastructure Opportunity for President Biden and Congress

On January 20, 2021 we saw the inauguration of the 46th president of the United States. Earlier in the month the 117th US Congress was sworn in. These events come at a time when our nation is facing great challenges, a divided country, a raging pandemic, high unemployment, and a weakened economy. It punctuates a contentious election where both candidates spoke to the need for change, but with vastly different visions. It is in this recognition of a need for change where an opportunity lies for a uniquely bi-partisan approach to an issue that affects all Americans and all states – red and blue.

 What future do we desire as a nation, and what level of economic competitiveness does that future require? What is the level of safety and security we desire both today and tomorrow? Do we wish to remain a nation divided or one that achieves a future bright with hope and success for all our people?

 This is the challenge our country faces. We must set an expectation for the quality of life we wish for ourselves and our children that is affordable, sustainable, and just. This future must provide us, as a nation, with the ability to respond to new challenges, manmade and natural. It must be built upon the hopes and dreams of our children, who must have the knowledge and tools to improve the world within which we live. It must be a future that inspires us and has as its strong foundation the core beliefs of our nation.

 Today one of the elements of that foundation is in crisis. The nation's infrastructure is crumbling and increasingly falling short of meeting the needs of our nation in the near future and providing equal utility and benefit to all our citizens.

 In order to meet the challenges of the future, we must address this situation with a broad and inspiring vision such as the one set in 1929 in the first New York regional plan, or in 1956 with the dawn of the interstate highway era, or in 1962 when then President Kennedy challenged the nation to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This cannot just be a vision of just economic stimulus and business as usual; it must be much more.

 That vision is putting in place a world-class critical infrastructure system that provides a solid foundation for the nation's health, safety, and well-being by the end of the decade.

 To achieve this vision, we must conceive new ideas and use new frameworks and approaches. We must act in a concerted way over a sustained period as a nation. We must keep a clear focus - failure to put in place a world-class set of integrated, efficient and equitable infrastructure systems will slowly sap our economic competitiveness and prevent us from fully capitalizing on the strengths of all our people. Failure will deny us the skilled 21st century labor and economic resources we as a nation require to be a world leader.

 While the U.S. infrastructure is crumbling and falling further behind our future needs, our competitors around the world are improving their infrastructure systems. The time to act is now.

 How can we achieve this vision of putting in place a world-class critical infrastructure system that provides a solid foundation for the nation's health, safety, and well-being?

 Change must occur at all levels and in all elements of what comprises a world-class infrastructure system. These dimensions of change include:

         Leadership - It is not someone else's duty to lead. Leadership must take place at the national, state, and local level, by the executive, legislative and judicial branches, by the public and private sector, and by business, academia, and all citizens. It is here where the new administration can set the pace and the tone that will be required. America is best when America acts together. Infrastructure is not red or blue. It is red, white, and blue.

·         Education - As a nation we do not understand the severity of the crisis. The American public, its leaders and its children must understand that the need is not just about future "success" but very much about survival, for our way of life at the very least, and in the longer term about much more. The pandemic highlighted weaknesses in our infrastructure systems – their state-of-good repair, their funding mechanisms, and the cracks in their coverage. It also held out hope, accelerating many trends that can open more opportunities to the nation’s citizens but only if we have the required infrastructure broadly in place. Yes, economic stimulus based on infrastructure investment may create some jobs today and help redress the state-of-good repair which is all too often lacking. It may create more jobs in the medium term but the challenge we must educate our children and fellow citizens about is much bigger. Our future is not assured, and our prospects will only grow more dire the longer we wait to address the problems facing us.

·         Vision - The nation's leaders must articulate this vision, support this vision and most important, drive it home. It is not a vision about concrete and steel, rather it is a vision about the jobs we can have, the privileges we can enjoy, the quality of the life we can live and the quality of the environment in which we will eat, drink and breathe every day and importantly the extent to which all our citizens can participate in America’s success. It is this vision which the new administration and the leaders on Capitol Hill, on both sides of the aisle, must seize upon.

·         Decisiveness - Decisions in the 21st century must recognize that the silos of the past are barriers to the future. More holistic approaches such as the regional approach first employed in the New York’s 1929 regional plan or the national perspective embodied in the Pershing map that underpinned the interstate highway system are required. Perhaps more than ever, however, we must recognize that inaction carries an unacceptable penalty. As a nation we have faced existential threats many times. We have banded together, and this is one of those times.

·         Innovation - The future requires new solutions and bolder applications of the technologies we currently have. The pandemic accelerated the use of many of these technologies. We must invest in being a leader in how we plan, deliver, and finance the strong foundations we wish for our nation's infrastructure. Governance and industry models for the delivery, nature and extent of infrastructure must be challenged and the barriers which limit systemic innovation and widespread realization of benefits removed. Again, this is an area where the new administration in concert with a bi-partisan Congress can lead, recognizing that change is rarely popular or easily embraced. We must do the hard things.

·         Stewardship - We must be honest with ourselves on the difficulty and cost of deploying and sustaining a world-class infrastructure. We must recognize the impacts of our choices and make decisions that promote improvements to the quality of life and the environment we all share. As a nation we must make big choices that will affect generations. The new administration has the opportunity to leave a lasting template that sets us on a path towards enhanced prosperity, competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience; a path that creates opportunities for all our citizens.

 The challenge ahead is great, but we are a great people. The effort will be hard and the journey long - certainly longer than the two-, four- and six-year election cycles that have governed many of our more recent decisions on meeting this growing infrastructure challenge. This administration must set the frameworks which break this electoral cycle dependence and provide a sounder foundation for long term infrastructure investment and sustainability.

 The cost will be great, certainly more than the tens or even hundreds of billions some have suggested. But failure is not an option. We must succeed for ourselves and for our children. We must succeed so the ideals we believe in have resonance in the future. We must succeed so that we may remain that shining beacon of hope that lady Liberty embodies in New York harbor.

 We have the most fundamental tool required for success, the strength and determination of the American people when they rally behind a great goal. The leadership to achieve this goal must come from this administration with bi-partisan support of a Congress united for America and the American people.

 Bob Prieto