Legislative Fly-In : 2023
On March 1 st through March 3 rd , I was fortunate enough to join up with about 250 other fellow engineering advocates in Washington DC on behalf of ASCE and speak to our congressional delegation about the importance of infrastructure .
In the past the message and presentation to the delegates was primarily the need to invest more in infrastructure and to get funds into the hands of engineers , municipalities and construction companies that could do the work . With the recent large infrastructure investments by the federal government such as the IIJA ( Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ) as well as the newly released IRA ( Inflation Reduction Act ) the messaging changed this time around . It was great , thanks for the investments , and make sure to keep them coming !
Two main topics of discussion were the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as well as the reauthorization of the National Dam Safety Program . These programs both supply substantial funding to their respective area by directly providing federal funding to support the implementation in these areas , especially for the smaller and not as well funded airports and state dam inspection programs .
Another main topic of conversation was the continued investment into infrastructure , even after the IIJA funds expire . While it is fantastic to get the funds that we did , a one-time investment will not fix everything , especially going forward . As we all know , it is critical to not just invest in infrastructure , but to also invest in the long term maintenance and costly repairs associated with infrastructure .
I was fortunate enough to meet directly with legislative leaders from Congressman Pappas ’ s , Senator Shaheen ’ s and Senator Hassan ’ s offices as well as begin a dialogue with Congresswoman Kuster ’ s office . These meetings all went extremely well and everyone I spoke with was extremely interested to hear about how the federal money was coming into our communities , and how we were going about allocating these funds . It was a good opportunity for me to provide some personal insights into how I was working with these funds and the benefits and challenges I have been experiencing here in Manchester .
Overall I was extremely pleased I went and was able to establish personal relationships with some key players which I know will benefit ASCE and ASCE-NH in the long run . I am happy to discuss this in more detail , so feel free to reach out anytime !
Owen Friend-Gray ASCE-NH President ofriend @ manchesternh . gov
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