Americans spend a total of 600,000 years stuck in traffic every year. The nation has about 100,000 bridges old enough for Medicare. And a recent global ranking put the United States’ infrastructure in 25th place, just behind Barbados. But Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says he sees signs the nation may finally be ready to tackle its “infrastructure deficit.”

One reason for optimism is that some members of Congress are beginning to talk about specific proposals to shore up the federal Highway Trust Fund, which has been teetering on the edge of insolvency for years, Foxx told The Associated Press in an interview.