Infrastructure Week: Highlighting The Consequences Of Inaction

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives have reportedly begun to write a broad infrastructure package that would allocate billions of dollars to local and state governments to rebuild roads, ports, transit systems, and airports. While details about the plan are scarce at this point, the need for new investments in infrastructure are well known. According to the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), the United States “must invest an additional $206 billion each year to prevent the economic consequences to families, business, and the economy.” If it does not:

• Each household will lose $3,400 each year in disposable income due to infrastructure deficiencies;
• The U.S. economy will lose almost $4 trillion in gross domestic product and 2.5 million jobs by 2025; and
• Worker wages will fall and, over the long term, many higher paying jobs in technology and other leading sectors will be replaced by jobs that fulfill needs brought on by the inefficiencies of deteriorating infrastructure.

The ASCE outlines the full costs of inaction in this report. This coming May, for the seventh year in a row, businesses and advocacy organizations will join together for Infrastructure Week, a weeklong event that seeks to bring attention to the United States’ infrastructure needs. There are several ways to participate in Infrastructure Week, including:

• Social media:Follow @infraweek and use the hashtag #BuildForTomorrow to join the conversation. Share how infrastructure impacts your members, customers, business, or community.
• Events:Events could include touring construction sites, ribbon cuttings, or ground breakings at infrastructure construction sites, and partnering with local organizations, such as a local chamber of commerce to host a forum. Other groups plan meetings with local officials and state legislators to highlight job creation opportunities when government invests in infrastructure. Contact partnerships@infrastructureweek.org if you’re interested in planning an event.
• Press:Ideas for how to engage the press include writing an op-ed, issuing a press release about your participation in Infrastructure Week, making your event a press conference, or calling your local news radio to do an interview. A message guide with talking points and op-ed templates is available here.

Interested in learning more about Infrastructure Week? Click here.