Congress is Back in Session: Here’s What to Watch For
September 13, 2019
Now that summer has ‘unofficially’ ended, Congress returns to D.C. with a laundry list of items to accomplish before wrapping up the 2019 legislative session. However, what’s most pressing is that Congress must pass all 12 appropriations (funding) bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2019 to prevent a government shutdown.......
FEMA Unveils New National Mitigation Investment Strategy
August 16, 2019
National Preparedness Month (NPM) hits September 1, and has a slight head start, with a new strategy from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help improve coordinated efforts and effectiveness of risk management actions that would avoid, reduce, or transfer risks from natural hazards – including severe weather—across sectors. The National Mitigation Investment Strategy......
Senate Panel Moves on Surface Transportation Bill
July 31, 2019
Bipartisanship was in the air on Capitol Hill this week. If there’s one issue both political parties can agree on, that’s infrastructure. This was evident this week as the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee introduced, marked up, and voted out of Committee S. 2302, America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019 (ATIA). This legislation......
Innovations in Seismology: Fiber Optics Help Maintain America’s Infrastructure
June 20, 2019
The Seismological Society of America hosted a briefing on June 17 on fiber optic analyses, proving that using fiber optic analyses could be instrumental to the maintenance and safety of America’s infrastructure. Panelists included Herb Wang from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and Nate Lindsay from the University of California, Berkley, and they focused on......
Infrastructure Week: #BuildForTomorrow
May 16, 2019
The mood this Infrastructure Week was optimistic, with the timing perfectly sandwiched between two important meetings: the April 30th discussion between Democratic leaders in Congress and President Trump to discuss a $2 trillion investment solution and a scheduled next week to discuss funding solutions for this plan. Excitement was in the air from the DMV to Texas,......
ASCE Testifies on Resilient Infrastructure
March 15, 2019
On Wednesday, the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies held a stakeholder’s perspective hearing on building more resilient infrastructure. This Subcommittee determines how federal dollars are allocated for each of these issue areas. ASCE Board of Direction Member, Carol Haddock, P.E., testified alongside Laura Lightbody, Project Director for......
Civil Engineers Give Hawai‘i’s Infrastructure a D+ on First Report Card
March 07, 2019
The Aloha State’s infrastructure sits in poor condition, mostly due to aging infrastructure, lack of funding, and sea level rise. Today, the Hawai‘i Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released the inaugural 2019 Report Card for Hawai‘i’s Infrastructure, grading 11 categories of the region’s infrastructure, resulting in an overall grade point average......
House Transportation Examines Climate Change and Infrastructure
February 27, 2019
On Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure examined the role the transportation sector plays in climate change, which included the dual track approach of mitigation and resiliency. Committee Members heard from individuals in the public and private sectors on ways to reduce carbon emissions and building resilient infrastructure. At this hearing, “Examining......
House Panel Examines Federal Energy Management
December 13, 2018
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy recently held a hearing entitled, “Public Private Partnerships (P3s) for Federal Energy Management.” Committee members discussed the current status, challenges, and opportunities for increasing energy efficiency savings and conservation in federal facilities and programs, which would be done through the primary U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)......
Disaster Recovery Reform Act headed to the President
October 05, 2018
ASCE and our colleagues in the BuildStrong Coalition are pleased to acknowledge the October 3rd Senate passage of the bipartisan Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA as part of H.R. 302, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2018. The bill will now go to the president’s desk, where it is expected to be signed......