Rishabh Iyer, PE
If you are ever wondering what the best activity to do after Saint Patrick’s Day, wonder no further, since it has to be attending the ASCE Fly-in in Washington DC. This year, representatives from Massachusetts attended the fly in to advocate for various infrastructure spending packages that support both public infrastructure, safety, and general improvement to all public works (water, transportation, damns and buildings). ASCE hosts the Fly-in every spring and releases the Report Card every four years to advocate for industry issues and funding needs. The attendees from our Commonwealth included Sam Liao (Strategics LLC), Matthew Sanchez (AECOM), Justin Paik (Metamagnetics, Inc.), Anuja Kamat (Wentworth Institute of Technology) and me (Kleinfelder).
The Infrastructure Report Card issued last year, provided the United States of America with an overall grade of C, indicating that America’s infrastructure is mediocre (at best) and requires attention. The Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA)provided some betterment on America’s overall grade from the 2021 result, but there is still so much work to be done and with the IIJA funding lapsing this September, there is a real concern that infrastructure will not improve within the coming years. Part of the advocacy efforts is to inform elected officials on how important the IIJA is and to continue funding for other infrastructure bills at the same levels for the next five years as the IIJA sunsets.
For this year’s fly in, ASCE provided general recommendations to Congress on improvements to infrastructure packages with an emphasis on the following.
- Resilient Infrastructure – ASCE provided Recommendations and tools to prioritize the development of resilient infrastructure such as passing the Fixing FEMA Act, use of Life-Cycle Cost Analysis principles to evaluate the total cost of a project and update building codes to provide flood resistant design.
- State Revolving Fund – reauthorize the clean water and drinking water state revolving fund for the next five years with a level no less than $14.65 billion in funding. Included with the funding is requests to ensure that stormwater projects have the same access to SRF financing and there are adequate monies available for lead service line removal and addressing contamination such as PFAS.
- Surface Transportation – reauthorize a multi-year bill that fully funds transportation programs. Under this reauthorization, ASCE recommends maintaining the same level of funding as provided in the IIJA , prioritizing projects that are safety focused, as well as streamlining and simplifying the environmental permitting process around transportation projects.
- Water Resource Development Act – Reauthorization of select grants and programs that focus on dam, levees, ports and inland water way improvements. The reinstatement of these grant programs includes providing states with funding to address dams that pose a risk to downstream communities as well as address the current backlog of projects at the US Army Corps of Engineers, as the current backlog exceeds $100 billion. It is recommended Congress should work with USACE on strategies to address and reduce the backlog.
The day at Capital Hill was truly an unforgettable experience, it is amazing to see the steadfast and dedicated individuals within our government all working to make our Nation better. Together as a team, we tackled seven meetings across three buildings in under six hours. This included scheduled meetings with the offices of Representatives Stephen Lynch, Jake Auchincloss, and Lori Trahan, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. These meetings underscored our position as engaged constituents and advocates. For the most part, each meeting was held with a staff member, that were supportive of infrastructure policy. Our job was to inform staff and representatives on the importance of the infrastructure policies being recommended by ASCE. We drove the point home by making the discussion points tangible, which was accomplished by providing real life examples on how the IIJA has supported communities in Massachusetts, as our primary obligation is to communicate these priorities and further endorse these decision-making and legislative efforts. Each meeting was about 30 minutes, and all staff members involved were receptive to how important infrastructure betterment was to the Nation.
Additionally, we swung by the offices of Representative Katherine Clark and Richard Neal during our free time. We dropped off ASCE literature on the advocacy issues discussed above, with not much time being spent at these offices as we had no meeting scheduled, however the staff were very amenable to our unscheduled visit and brief discussion points.
Traveling to Washington, DC to see the nation’s capital and its historic sites is a rewarding experience. I encourage readers of this newsletter to look into the next ASCE fly-in, plan your own trip, or connect with your Representatives at their district offices. Our government welcomes public input, and your voice as an engineer can help influence the path forward, as to advance legislation that enhances America’s infrastructure.
The link below to the ASCE key contact program includes a sign up to receive policy content and information about the application for the next legislative outreach event in Washington DC.
https://www.asce.org/advocacy/key-contacts
Please reach out with any questions about the ASCE Fly-in
Rishabh Iyer, PE
Project Engineer
BSCES Vice President
[email protected]