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Current Stimulus -- Infrastructure Still Needs Help
By John D. Freshman
As we watch the economic stimulus package inexorably morph into the economic recovery/innovative energy development/education/unemployment package before our eyes, a few things are worth noting:
- Economists agree that massive public investment in job-creating public works is an effective way to reverse a recession;
- "Shovel ready," the original criterion for these projects, is difficult to achieve but not for the obvious reasons.
- Regardless of what exactly is in the stimulus package and we pretty much know, much will remain to be done after it’s passed by Congress.
Since the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, which was successful in many ways, bureaucracy has become a dirty word—the enemy of progress. But without the bureaucracy, who is going assure that a massive investment in public infrastructure is clean, transparent and ultimately worthwhile. Someone has to review the plans, process the checks and audit the activities.
The reason Larry Summers and others have been able to make the argument that there aren't enough "shovel-ready" projects is that as our public infrastructure has atrophied over the years, the delivery system to fix it has atrophied as well. During the last 20 or so years, the agencies that administer infrastructure funding and oversee the development of these projects have withered from disuse. Until this delivery system is rebuilt, not being "shovel-ready" will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
While the lack of “shovel-ready” projects has been cited as the reason Congress should focus more on economic recovery matters (tax credits, COBRA funding, unemployment benefits, etc) these do not provide the direct employment for skilled and unskilled labor nor the attendant secondary jobs that real infrastructure investments provide. Although recovery spending is worthwhile and even essential, referring to such programs as “stimulus” only confuses the debate and delays the very actions Congress needs to be taking.
As the current “stimulus” package moves towards its inevitable and in many ways laudable passage the job is only just beginning. The President has said that this is a two-year effort and we all should believe him; however, much needs to be done during those two years, including:
- A new highway bill needs to be authorized so projects can be cleared for funding.
- A new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) needs to be authorized as well.
- The Clean Water Act, which has not been significantly amended in over 20 years, needs an overhaul and Congress needs to revisit the issues of loans versus grants. Loans don't help much when you are broke and can't afford to pay them back as is the case with many local governments. It's probably time to bring back the construction grants program, which was the mainstay of clean water for so many years and resulted in so much improvement in our treasured rivers, lakes and streams.
- Moreover we need to return the Federal role to its rightful place. Most of the current programs for funding wastewater treatment and drinking water is in the form of loans, which pass through the states. There are times and places where the problem is so great and the needs so significant that the Federal government should be involved directly. This happened with the upgrades for the Chesapeake Bay, the Southern California bight, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and other national treasures.
WRDA needs to be accompanied in the Congress by a comprehensive bill for water development, recycling and reclamation. The days of dams are appropriately over but much still needs to be done, and doing so will create significant jobs. Throughout the country, new technologies are being used to bring "unusable" water back into usability. Membranes, filters, biological treatment and other technologies are dramatically improving and becoming readily available. Federal funding through additional authorizations or adequate appropriations could expedite the development and use of these technologies, which have the potential to alleviate the types of water shortages long experienced in the west and now affecting certain parts of the east coast such as Atlanta.
Meanwhile, the regular appropriations process needs to get back on track. It is time to start the process for 2010 and yet the 2009 bills (except for veteran's, defense and homeland security) are not done. Many of the categories in those bills for transportation and water are ready-to-go and the money needs to be freed. The 2010 appropriations can provide essential monies for many stimulative projects and they need to be completed on time. When the stimulus is matured these will be the vehicles for the ongoing projects and investments that will sustain the recovery.
So the stimulus, now economic recovery, package still matters a lot. But it will not accomplish much real infrastructure. That will take hard work and regular order. And, by the way, what's going to happen when all those alternative energy projects, school rehabs, large-scale weatherization run into environmental impact statements, duplicative state environmental impact requirements, Federal, State and local permitting and, most importantly, the NIMBY (not in my back yard) or BANANA (build absolutely nothing, anywhere, never, at all) political sentiments that many Americans currently hold.
Where will the competent Federal, State and local officials be to move the projects forward through inevitable roadblocks and delays? When will the stimulus really occur?
We have a lot to do. Let's get started
About the Author:
John D. Freshman, Principal at Troutman Sanders Strategies, is a nationally recognized expert on water and infrastructure who has served in both the Senate and the White House.