‘Infrastructure Week’ provides reminder of a non-partisan need

The past week was “Infrastructure Week” and if that jogs something in your memory about the first Trump administration, bingo.

In his first term, President Trump raised the idea of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan — at one point raised to $2 trillion — but time after time grand announcements were followed by — nothing. “Infrastructure week” became a running joke.

However, the state of the nation’s infrastructure is no joke and there was a bipartisan desire to actually get something done after decades of neglect. Thus, in 2021, President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Along with the Chips Act and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, they formed the Holy Trinity of Bidenomics.

When President Trump returned to office in January he signed a pair of executive orders freezing selected grants under these programs. His “Unleashing American Energy” order was all about fossil fuels and an attempt to stop grants supporting renewable energy.

Angst and lawsuits followed. In April, federal Judge Mary McElroy ruled these grants had to be unfrozen. Executive orders can’t undo Congressional appropriations. Little by little, grants announced, but not obligated. started to move.

The backlog is substantial at more than 3,000 grants and Republicans have not missed the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration’s management.

For example, states were to receive $5 billion to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide by 2030. As of February this year, when the Trump administration froze the program, $3.3 billion had been allocated but only $40 million had been spent and precious few chargers had been built.

Note that the president froze the electric vehicle charger program before he held a publicity event for Elon Musk’s Tesla cars on the White House lawn.

However, that program and many others are an illustration of the problems that now confront the Trump administration: Federal agencies that don’t cooperate; state governments that have varying degrees of competence and capacity; and the difficulty of working with a stew of local governments, private sector partners and local interest groups.

Rather than using the IIJA as a political cudgel to beat the already vanquished Biden administration, the Trump administration has an opportunity to demonstrate its managerial chops — though given its chaotic character no one should hold their breath.

It is also an opportunity for the president to take credit for any completed projects, which is a given.

At an “Infrastructure Week” event hosted last week by the American Society of Civil Engineers, West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, the chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, stressed the opportunity and challenge of implementing the IIJA.

High on her agenda is streamlining the permitting process, increasing the safety and reliability of surface transport and figuring out how to pay for a sustained effort to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure given that revenue from the federal gas tax is declining thanks to more fuel efficient cars and the increasing numbers of electric vehicles.

ASCE puts out an annual report grading the nation’s infrastructure, and in its March report there was good news and bad news. The good news is that the overall grade was the highest it has been since 1998. The bad news is that the grade is C.

Illinois has already received billions from the IIJA and should receive more. There is a good deal to do. The ASCE report notes that 41% of the roads in Illinois are rated as poor or fair condition and that its grades for roads, drinking water and transit systems are all D-.

Can we find the better bipartisan angels of our nature to get some work done?

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.