Both parties agree infrastructure needs fixing. So why hasn鈥檛 it happened?
| Washington
In the wee hours of the morning on Nov. 9, 2016, Donald Trump took to the podium for the first time as president-elect and promised to 鈥渂egin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation.鈥�
鈥淲e are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,鈥� the former real estate mogul vowed. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to rebuild our infrastructure 鈥� which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.鈥�
It was Mr. Trump鈥檚 , with two-thirds of Americans saying they saw more infrastructure spending as 鈥渧ery important.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
It can be hard for Congress to pass legislation when there are sharp partisan differences. But on infrastructure, there鈥檚 actually plenty of agreement. Progress has stalled over questions of funding 鈥� and political positioning.
Two and a half years later, the promise remains unfulfilled. Despite yet another meeting today between the president and congressional leaders to discuss the matter, there鈥檚 little evidence of any kind of deal on the horizon.
Mr. Trump told reporters after today鈥檚 meeting that there could be no progress on infrastructure until Democrats stopped their investigations of him, saying 鈥淵ou can go down the investigation track or you can go down the investment track.鈥澛燚emocrats called that a convenient excuse. 鈥淲e are interested in doing infrastructure,鈥� Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear the president isn鈥檛.鈥�
Yet Americans鈥� priorities haven鈥檛 changed. A Politico late last year showed that Americans thought improving the country鈥檚 infrastructure was the third most important issue for the incoming Congress 鈥� and that was before floodwaters most of the heartland.
On its face, infrastructure seems like prime stump speech material for the Democrats running in the 2020 presidential race: serious needs, bipartisan support, and an opportunity to highlight Mr. Trump鈥檚 failure to deliver. And yet, aside from trillion-dollar proposals by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, infrastructure has been largely absent from the campaign conversation. Even the media is ignoring it: Politico鈥檚 overview of the 鈥渂ig 2020 issues鈥� infrastructure.
Why would an issue with so much bipartisan agreement be garnering so little traction or attention? For precisely that reason.
鈥淲ith infrastructure, the basic position is just let鈥檚 fix it; let鈥檚 improve it. Everybody agrees with that objective,鈥� says Laura Stoker, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. As a candidate, 鈥測ou want to do something that gives you an edge over your competitors. And this is a really hard issue to differentiate [between] the parties or to differentiate you from someone else.鈥�
If distinction is more useful in politics, then the broad consensus around infrastructure may paradoxically be proving unhelpful. Ms. Stoker calls it a 鈥渓oser鈥� issue, especially with 23 Democrats vying for the same slice of the electoral pie.
Unsafe water, crumbling bridges
Americans鈥� concern about the state of the nation鈥檚 infrastructure is warranted. Unsafe drinking water 21 million people annually, traffic congestion nearly 100 hours from the average American last year, and floods buckled hundreds of miles of levees across the heartland this spring and millions of acres of crops.
Nearly 40% of bridges are 50 years old or more, and 9% of them are structurally deficient, according to the 2017 infrastructure 鈥溾�� from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Not to mention a looming 鈥渟ilver tsunami鈥� as workers in many infrastructure industries like construction and aviation near .
Yet getting any legislation passed to address these challenges appears all but impossible. Publicly, both parties support an infrastructure bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Schumer have been trying for weeks to work out a $2 trillion deal with Mr. Trump. However, even as negotiations were going on, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney cast doubt on the bill鈥檚 prospects.
Funding remains the sticking point. An ASCE analysis showed that it would cost nearly $4.6 trillion to repair鈥檚 the countries bridges, dams, and sewage systems.聽
鈥淚nfrastructure is a good talking point. But then to actually do something about it is extraordinarily difficult, not only politically, but logistically and financially,鈥� says Joseph Kane, a Brookings Institution senior policy analyst.
The bills also languish because of the infighting between the nearly 20 industries that fall under the broad umbrella of infrastructure.
鈥淭here are such vast needs across multiple modes, just within the machinations of Congress,鈥� says Jake Varn, a policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very complicated process to cobble together a bill that addresses highways and water systems and broadband and transit.鈥�
鈥楩ix the Damn Roads鈥�
While the presidential hopefuls may be largely ignoring infrastructure, some down-ballot candidates have recently demonstrated how to use it effectively on the campaign trail. Democrat Gretchen Whitmer won the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial race largely on her platform to 鈥淔ix the Damn Roads.鈥� A promise to resolve traffic issues propelled Democrat Danica Roem to the Virginia House of Representatives in 2017.
Voters respond best when candidates emphasize how infrastructure impacts their daily lives, as with commutes or drinking water. But its wide reach expands its relevance, says Mr. Varn.
鈥淚nfrastructure is an intersectional issue: It impacts education; it impacts housing; it impacts climate,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 think a lot of candidates are picking one big plank issue that they鈥檙e hoping to get voters to focus on, and they鈥檙e interweaving their infrastructure proposals through those lenses.鈥� Indeed, many of the more ambitious plans to address climate change 鈥� such as the one put forward by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee 鈥� do tackle infrastructure as part of that agenda.
Ultimately, what becomes politically relevant depends on who takes up a given issue and how much bandwidth voters have to process the message, says Ms. Stoker.
鈥淵ou have to have clear policy proposals, you have to have clear points of delineation between the parties, and all of that has to take time to develop,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 competing with everything else for people鈥檚 attention.鈥�
