NAM Urges Next U.S. President to Revamp Infrastructure

Roads. Bridges. Seaports. Airports. These pieces of infrastructure that America’s foremost organization representing manufacturers wants the next President of the United States to focus on in 2017. In a statement released Wednesday, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said that infrastructure will be the group’s “signature issue.”

“Our failing infrastructure is an embarrassment for our nation. Our ability to compete successfully in the global economy is being held back by roads and bridges in disrepair and ports and airports operating beyond capacity,” said the organization’s president and chief executive officer Jay Timmons. “America’s infrastructure is vital to the future of manufacturing in America – to acquire materials for game-changing products, to get our employees to work, and to transport what we make to consumers in our country and around the world.”

Initiating an effort called “Building to Win,” NAM said it will work with the next U.S. president and other lawmakers to help remedy the nation’s infrastructure problems. The organization estimates that an investment of over $1 trillion is required to fund a revamp of the country’s roads, bridges, seaports and airports.

“We must seize this moment. The presidential candidates are offering their support for infrastructure renewal, and bold action in Washington is finally within reach. Manufacturers want to make sure that money is not wasted and lawmakers tackle the real problem so we can build world-class, 21^st century infrastructure. ‘Building to Win’ achieves these goals and is a powerful proposal that lays out real problems and real solutions.”

Some key recommendations proposed by NAM include:
- Relieve highway bottlenecks and repair America’s crumbling highways and bridges. Act now to repair and upgrade unsafe and neglected bridges.
- Invest in Amtrak and promote regulatory and fiscal policies that incentivize continued record levels of private capital reinvestment in our railroads.
- Promote new energy infrastructure investments as a means of increasing U.S. infrastructure’s resilience to climate change.
- Streamline regulatory processes across multiple agencies and levels of government to foster the use of cutting-edge broadband communications infrastructure.

For more about NAM’s “Building to Win” agenda, visit http://www.nam.org/BuildingToWin

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