Press Releases

January 29, 2020

HOUSE RELEASES INFRASTRUCTURE FRAMEWORK

$3 billion for Inland Waterways Modernization Projects, $19.7 billion for Harbor Maintenance Programs

Today, the Chairmen of three House Committees released a framework for a five-year, $760 billion investment in infrastructure that would address the country’s infrastructure needs, from “the massive maintenance backlog, to designing safer streets, to putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions from the transportation sector and increasing resiliency.“ The framework was released by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA). 

Among other things, the framework outlines major investments, including those in highways, rail, and transit systems, airports, ports, harbors and inland waterways, wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, brownfields, and broadband. No plan for funding the framework has yet been identified. 

See the plan at the link below and note page 9’s $3 billion toward inland waterways projects.

A few points from the House press release: “Our country has changed dramatically since the 1950s, yet people and goods are now literally stuck trying to move on transportation networks first developed nearly 70 years ago.”...

“There is no better way to strengthen our economy for the future than to modernize our badly aging infrastructure.”...

 “Due to decades of underfunding and neglect, America’s infrastructure system is falling apart and we’re falling behind our global competitors.”...

See the Framework here.