The National Governors’ Association met in Washington, DC this week for their winter meeting. The group’s chairman, Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania presented a new plan, Strengthening Our Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future  that the nation’s governors will push to help improve the nation’s infrastructure.   Gov. Rendell has long been a supporter of infrastructure [...]

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law this afternoon at a ceremony in Denver, CO. Among the provisions in the $790 billion bill – approximately $100 billion in funds for infrastructure.   While this is a great start to getting Americans back to work and beginning the [...]

House and Senate conferees have reached agreement on the economic stimulus package, H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The final agreement puts the cost of the package at $790 billion, less than either the House passed $819 billion version or the $838 billion Senate version. Both houses of Congress are expecting final votes [...]

At a town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Florida today, President Barack Obama gave a “nod” to ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure saying that the D grade we released in January “Makes a case for high-speed rail and mass transit” and other infrastructure improvements. To read his full remarks go to the White House [...]

Tags: Obama

There is much discussion these days in Washington, D.C. and state capitals about a “shovel ready” projects.  Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any consensus about a definition, and you won’t find on in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Of course in the coming weeks, once H.R. 1 becomes law we’ll get [...]

The U.S. Senate voted this evening to cut off debate (or invoke cloture) by a vote of 61 to 36. This is a crucial procedural step that means they will likely vote for final passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act tomorrow.   The compromise hammered out in the last few days now puts [...]

Since early last week, the Senate has been debating the economic stimulus package. There have been multiple amendments both to increase the spending and decrease it. Right now, those who want to lower the overall cost seem to have won (although infrastructure still continues to fare well) and the package should be heading to the [...]

As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act makes its way through the Senate this week, there are a number of proposals to boost infrastructure spending over the amounts approved by the full House and the Senate Committees. While the amendments are expected to be debated today, it is still unsure whether they will be approved. [...]

It’s been almost a week since we released the 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure  and everyone has had time to digest the news. After the release, we got an immediate burst of publicity, but the hits keep coming!   So here’s another, shorter round-up of the media coverage ASCE’s Report Card has been receiving. [...]