President Biden Takes Office and Infrastructure Takes Center Stage
January 21, 2021
Yesterday, President Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, ushering in a new Administration which has indicated that infrastructure will be a key priority. Shortly after taking office, President Biden issued a series of Executive Orders (EOs), with additional EOs expected in the upcoming weeks. Immediate actions have been aimed......
Civil Engineers Give West Virginia’s Infrastructure a “D” in 2020 Report Card
December 03, 2020
On Wednesday, the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released the 2020 Report Card for West Virginia’s Infrastructure, the Section’s inaugural report card. West Virginia civil engineers gave five categories of infrastructure an overall grade of a ‘D,’ meaning the state’s infrastructure is in poor condition, with many elements approaching......
November 24, 2020
*Kevin Longley, Alexa Lopez, and Maria Matthews contributed to this blog As 2020 comes to a close, ASCE Government Relations is thankful for its wonderful community of 150,000 members who work diligently to ensure the safety, efficiency, and modernization of our nation’s roads, bridges, drinking and wastewater systems, utilities, and more every day. The work......
April 22, 2020
This week, the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee has released a draft of their bipartisan WRDA 2020 bill, entitled America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2020, which keeps Congress on track with the biennium WRDA reauthorization schedule. This bill authorizes $17 billion in infrastructure projects and reauthorizes the EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund......
ASCE Submits Public Comments to EPA’s Proposed Lead and Copper Rule
February 10, 2020
This week, ASCE submitted public comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Lead and Copper Rule; this is the first major update to the Lead and Copper Rule since 1991. It is widely recognized that any level of exposure to lead can have detrimental health impacts, and low income populations are more likely to......
EPA and USACE Release Final Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) Rule
January 23, 2020
This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) released a finalized Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule named the Navigable Waters Protection Rule to define “Waters of the United States.” This final rule comes after the agencies released a proposed rule in December 2018 to redefine the......
Infrastructure Investment Wins Big at the Ballot Box
November 08, 2019
Americans in 19 different states lined up at poll centers on November 5th with an array of decisions to make on their ballots. Despite being an off-year election, infrastructure took center stage. Of the collective 305 ballot measures supporting transportation infrastructure investment, 270 – roughly 90% – were approved. From Maine to Texas, these 270......
States Could Face Surface Transportation Performance Goal Penalties
November 05, 2019
As we move into reauthorizing the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, recently reported data shows Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia will need to spend a collective $1.8 billion prior to September 30, 2020—the FAST Act expiration— on improvements to National Highway......
Congressional Briefing on Resilience in Puerto Rico Highlights ASCE 7
September 26, 2019
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) held a Capitol Hill briefing on Tuesday to examine resiliency in Puerto Rico two years after Hurricane Maria. In his opening remarks, ASCE’s Executive Director Tom Smith, ENV.SP., CAE, F.ASCE stressed that building resilient infrastructure was in the best interest of the American taxpayer, as every dollar spent......
Update on the Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Process
September 20, 2019
This week, the House passed a stopgap spending measure, or continuing resolution (CR), to fund the government through November 21, 2019. The current fiscal year expires on September 30, and without a stopgap measure, a government shutdown will occur. While the House passed 10 of its 12 Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriations bills before the......
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