Infrastructure
Our bridges and highways are in big trouble
The amount required to fix the nation’s major infrastructure weaknesses — $3.32 trillion — may sound like a lot. But doing nothing will only make the problem more expensive, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
ASCE released a study that estimates that through 2025, the United States has funded only 56 percent of its needed spending on ports, highways, bridges, trains, water and electric facilities.
Examples of infrastructure failures abound, from the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich., to travel delays at major airports and the deadly 2007 Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis. The result is “a cascading impact on our nation’s economy, impacting business productivity, gross domestic product, employment, personal income and international competitiveness,” said the ASCE report.
In addition, families’ disposable income will decrease by $3,400 annually from 2016 through 2025 because of infrastructure deficiencies, ASCE said. The study found that commuters in the far West (Hawaii, California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon) spent 53 percent of their commutes driving on inadequate pavement. In the last three years, surface transportation has worsened significantly.
That is only the beginning of the problems.
According to the study, “the total hours of highway congestion delay in the top 50 metro areas has grown 36 percent” in the past three years.
Two major problems were found during the study. There is not enough money going toward repairing and replacing current infrastructure, and additional infrastructure is needed to support a growing population.
While many people were shocked that drinking water in the United States could contain lead, the study found that the nation’s water delivery “is decentralized and strained,” with 54,000 water systems serving 264 million people. If by 2020 a solution is not found, the predicted water system deficits will cost an estimated $84 billion. — Joana Suleiman
EDUCATION
Union head scolds federal Dept. of Ed.
Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, lashed out against the Department of Education over a proposed rule.
“The Education Department demonstrated that it was neither listening to stakeholders nor following the framework of the legislation,” Weingarten said on May 18 during a Senate education committee hearing. “The department seems to be pushing or pursuing an agenda that was rejected in the legislative process.”
The proposed rule is part of the implementation of a new federal education law, signed by President Obama in December 2015, that is the first major education reform since No Child Left Behind in 2002. The rule would essentially equalize spending at all schools in a school district.
Senate education chair Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., also opposes the rule. He said on May 17 the department has been “deceitful, dishonest” in implementing the law.
“This is what [the rule] means in practical terms,” Weingarten said. “A teacher’s salary and benefit is what will determine whether the teacher gets hired, whether the teacher gets retained or whether the teacher gets transferred. Not anything else. Not what the school needs to run a program. Not what the school’s particular programmatic focus is. Not the needs of schoolchildren.” — Jason Russell
Postal Service
New bill aims to address USPS financial woes
In an effort to keep the U.S. Postal Service “effective and efficient,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he anticipates the introduction of a bill to reverse the fiscally unsustainable path it’s on.
“We are actively trying to address the pre-funding issue,” Chaffetz said during a May 11 hearing on postal reform. “We are obviously — as we’ve heard from across the whole spactrum of the board — trying to deal with the Medicare portion of that.”
Since 2006, when Congress required the Postal Service to pre-fund health retiree benefits, health insurance is leading the agency into insolvency. To date, USPS has paid about $18 billion into the fund, according to the Government Accountability Office, but it’s missed about $28 billion in payments.
Chaffetz told reporters the issue of postal reform has “solid bipartisan support.”
Rep. Tom Carper, D-Del., introduced a bill in September that would create a new health benefits program specifically for postal employees and annuitants and require those eligible to enroll in Medicare.
Postmaster General Megan Brennan said during her testimony that the cornerstone of her reform proposal is to require full Medicare integration for retirees over the age of 65, which would save more than $17 billion in the next five years.
The plan also includes bringing back the exigent postal rate increase that the Postal Regulatory Commission did away with on April 10. Calculating retirement benefit liability using postal-specific salary growth, and allowing USPS more product flexibility.
“Without legislative and regulatory reform, our net losses will continue to grow … This will have a devastating effect on the future of the organization and the customers we serve,” Brennan said. — Joana Suleiman
