Even as it has become increasingly clear that the Amtrak horror in Philadelphia was caused by faulty driving rather than – say it with me – “America’s crumbling infrastructure,” the media have lit up with calls for increased federal spending on rail. In doing so, they frequently repair to our country’s “infrastructure report card,” as written by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

“A 2013 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the state of U.S. rail infrastructure a C+, slightly higher than the infrastructure grade for the nation as a whole (D+),” frets the New Republic. TNR is not alone in uncritically relaying the ASCE’s grade: CBS News, the Christian Science Monitor, and Slate, among others, have dutifully parroted the ASCE’s grade as if it were unimpeachable fact. Prominent people in the government also often cite the ASCE in pleading for more spending.