The highway to jobs (and re-election)

It’s an election year and every presidential and congressional candidate will crisscross the country over the coming months, asking citizens for their votes. These candidates will travel thousands of miles on U.S. roads and bridges, passing U.S. manufacturing plants where hardworking men and women lucky enough to have jobs are producing made-in-America equipment that must get to market. With each jarring pothole hit and every deteriorating bridge crossed, these politicians will brainstorm policies about ways to create more jobs for their next town hall speech.

If it isn’t painfully obvious during their travels that our early-20th century infrastructure can’t keep pace with modern-day demands of traffic, then voter polling should be the flashing yellow light getting their attention. Voters across the nation strongly believe that rebuilding and modernizing America’s roads, bridges and highways is essential to the future of our economy and the creation of U.S. jobs. In fact, a recent nationwide poll shows that most voters –a solid 65% - would be more inclined to vote for a presidential candidate with a strong position on rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. Even 60% of voters who self-identify as fiscally conservative believe this is exactly the type of work the federal government should be doing. And for those who look closely they will find the bill has no earmarks, is paid for, does not raise taxes and is a significant transition to reform a federal program by eliminating and consolidating outdated programs. In short, it satisfies all the concerns that budget hawks have expressed. This bill should be a unifier in Congress and a road map for responsible and wise investment-oriented spending.

Still need more convincing? Talk to business leaders. The equipment our member companies manufacture is used to move close to a  trillion dollars’ worth of goods to market each year. Increasingly, however, crumbling roads and bridges are not up to the job of moving U.S. products to businesses, residences and ports. According to a recent Transportation for America report, 1 in 9 highway bridges in the U.S. is classified as "structurally deficient," requiring significant maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement, and huge sections of major highways and roads across the country are in poor or mediocre condition. Our global competitors are racing to take advantage of this situation. Governments around the world are moving decisively to build infrastructure and help their manufacturing industries respond to customer demands and bring products quickly to market.

There is no one piece of legislation now before Congress that could do more to immediately create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness than the highway bill. After eight separate short-term extensions, the House and Senate continue to wrestle with bringing their individual packages to the floor for a vote.  Alarmingly, the clock is ticking towards the end of March when the current stop-gap extension will expire. Business doesn’t operate on short term fixes. It looks way down the road before investing and planning.  America’s manufacturers—and voters—look to Congress to move beyond political rhetoric and work together to pass a bill that will rebuild and modernize America’s infrastructure, and immediately create American jobs.

Investing in our country’s infrastructure is essential to the future of our economy and the creation of U.S. jobs. It is a proven economic engine with staying power – not only does it drive growth, it creates lasting benefits for future generations. American voters understand how important rebuilding our deteriorating roads, bridges and highways is to revitalizing our economy. Members of Congress should take a long look at the road ahead for American jobs and businesses (not to mention their own job security) and support the fully funded highway bill.

Slater is president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

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