July 08, 2020
This week, several subcommittees within the House Committee on Appropriations marked up Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations bills. All 12 appropriations bills must pass both chambers of Congress and be signed into law by September 30, 2020 in order to avoid a government shutdown. In recent years, Congress has not been able to pass the appropriations......
July 01, 2020
The following is a statement by K.N. Gunalan “Guna,” Ph.D., P.E., President, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in response to the House passage of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act: Today, the House of Representatives prioritized modern, resilient, and sustainable infrastructure as part of America’s recovery. We commend the House for making infrastructure investment a......
ASCE Recommendations Adopted in House Climate Crisis Action Plan
June 30, 2020
This week, the Democrats on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” which includes many of the recommendations that ASCE made in our letter to the Committee late last year. Our letter stated, in part: “Civil engineers work to harden existing and build new infrastructure to better withstand......
June 24, 2020
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) today released COVID-19’s Impacts on America’s Infrastructure, a status report on the COVID-19 pandemic’s detrimental effects on the nation’s critical, yet aging and underinvested airports, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, inland waterways, parks, ports, roads, schools, transit and wastewater infrastructure. The report provides a snapshot of these sectors,......
Mississippi’s Infrastructure Gets a ‘D+’; Grades Unveiled in Virtual Press Conference
April 14, 2020
The ASCE Mississippi Section released the 2020 Report Card for Mississippi’s Infrastructure this morning in a virtual news conference, announcing grades and solutions for 14 infrastructure categories. Due to the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and risks posed by large gatherings, the Section held the press conference virtually. Speakers included Jennifer Sloan Ziegler, Ph.D.,......
Where do the 2020 Presidential Candidates Stand on Infrastructure?
January 24, 2020
As we inch closer to the caucuses, Democratic candidates are running out of time to release tangible policy solutions which focus on the issues that are most critical to the majority of Americans. One of those issues, which 90 percent of Americans support, continues to be the condition of our nation’s infrastructure. So far, four......
SMART Infrastructure Act Puts Public Safety At Risk
January 09, 2020
Bipartisan legislation is hard to come by these days in Congress, which is why the Sustainable Municipal Access to Resilient Technology in Infrastructure, or SMART Act, may look good at first glance, however; this bill could do more harm than good in terms of moving America’s infrastructure into the 21st century. Engineers design, build, and......
Congress Averts Shutdown Approving Sweeping Spending Deal
December 20, 2019
In the midst of the political turmoil and tensions on Capitol Hill and the deadline to fund the government looms, Congress simultaneously reached a bipartisan $1.4 trillion spending package that funds the government through September 2020. This spending package includes core infrastructure programs for fiscal year (FY) 2020. Congressional leadership developed two ‘minibuses’ (H.R. 1865......
U.S. Department of Agriculture Spotlights Inland Waterways with Town Hall and New Report
August 30, 2019
On Wednesday, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Assistant Secretary of the Army R.D. James hosted a town hall outside of St. Louis to highlight the relationship between the inland waterways and the American agriculture sector. Bill Stahlman, PE, M.ASCE represented the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) at the town hall, offering......
Several High-Profile Disasters Bring A Renewed Focus on Resilient Infrastructure
June 04, 2019
The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers,” but here we are at the beginning of June – one day closer to summer vacation and the start of beach season, and the April showers haven’t stopped. Flooding, along with a plethora of other natural disasters across the country, from Hurricanes Michael and Florence to the......