AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE: TODAY’S GAPS, TOMORROW’S OPPORTUNITIES, AND THE NEED FOR FEDERAL INVESTMENT HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 Serial No. 116–15 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Budget ( Available on the Internet: www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 38–007 WASHINGTON : 2020 COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky, Chairman SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts, STEVE WOMACK, Arkansas, Vice Chairman Ranking Member HAKEEM S. JEFFRIES, New York ROB WOODALL, Georgia BRIAN HIGGINS, New York BILL JOHNSON, Ohio, BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania Vice Ranking Member RO KHANNA, California JASON SMITH, Missouri ROSA L. DELAURO, Connecticut BILL FLORES, Texas LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas GEORGE HOLDING, North Carolina DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina CHRIS STEWART, Utah JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina DANIEL T. KILDEE, Michigan KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma JIMMY PANETTA, California CHIP ROY, Texas JOSEPH D. MORELLE, New York DANIEL MEUSER, Pennsylvania STEVEN HORSFORD, Nevada WILLIAM R. TIMMONS IV, South Carolina ROBERT C. ‘‘BOBBY’’ SCOTT, Virginia DAN CRENSHAW, Texas SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee BARBARA LEE, California PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey SCOTT H. PETERS, California JIM COOPER, Tennessee PROFESSIONAL STAFF ELLEN BALIS, Staff Director DAN KENIRY, Minority Staff Director (II) CONTENTS Page Hearing held in Washington D.C., September 25, 2019 ....................................... 1 Hon. John A. Yarmuth, Chairman, Committee on the Budget .................... 1 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 4 Hon. Steve Womack, Ranking Member, Committee on the Budget ............. 6 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 8 Carol Ellinger Haddock, P.E., M.ASCE, Director, Houston Public Works, On Behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers .............................. 10 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 13 Christopher A. Coes, Vice President of Land Use and Development, Smart Growth America ................................................................................ 23 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 25 Adie Tomer, Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institu- tion ................................................................................................................. 32 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 34 R. Richard Geddes, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy, Cornell University, and Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute ..................................................................... 44 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 46 Hon. Seth Moulton, Member, Committee on the Budget, testimony sub- mitted for the record ..................................................................................... 56 Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Member, Committee on the Budget, statement submitted for the record ............................................................................... 102 Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro, Member, Committee on the Budget, questions submitted for the record ............................................................................... 108 Answers to questions submitted for the record .............................................. 110 (III) AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE: TODAY’S GAPS, TOMORROW’S OPPORTUNITIES, AND THE NEED FOR FEDERAL INVESTMENT WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET, Washington, D.C. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in Room 210, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. John A. Yarmuth, [Chair- man of the Committee] presiding. Present: Representatives Yarmuth, Moulton, Khanna, Panetta, Horsford, Jackson Lee, Omar, Sires, Peters; Womack, Johnson, Woodall, Smith, Flores, Norman, Roy, Timmons, Crenshaw, Hern, and Burchett. Chairman YARMUTH. The hearing will come to order. Good morning, and welcome to the Budget Committee Commit- tee’s hearing on ‘‘America’s Infrastructure: Today’s Gaps, Tomor- row’s Opportunities, and the Need for Federal Investment.’’ I want to welcome our witnesses here with us today. This morn- ing we will be hearing from: Ms. Carol Ellinger Haddock, Director of Houston Public Works for the city of Houston, testifying on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Mr. Christopher Coes, Vice President of Land Use and Develop- ment for Smart Growth America; Mr. Adie Tomer, Metropolitan Policy Program Fellow at The Brookings Institution; and Dr. Richard Geddes, Professor and Director of the Cornell Pro- gram in Infrastructure Policy at Cornell University, and Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. I will now yield myself five minutes for an opening statement. With each passing day our nation’s infrastructure becomes more inadequate for today’s demands and increasingly more dangerous for American families. If we as a Congress want to prepare our economy and our nation for a rapidly changing future, we must dramatically improve and modernize our infrastructure. A strong economy depends on strong infrastructure to function effectively. Unfortunately, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, our overall infra- structure grade is a D+, meaning that it is in poor condition and at risk. (1) 2 Our roads are crumbling. Tens of thousands of bridges are struc- turally deficient, and roadway congestion continues to sap our time and productivity. Many rural communities are still cut off from broadband access and are unable to benefit from advancements like telehealth serv- ices. As severe weather becomes more frequent, cities and commu- nities along our rivers and in coastal areas are put in danger by levees that might not withstand the next large storm. I know in my district on the Ohio River, we are currently relying on water pumps that are more than 100 years old. But it is not just Americans living near our waterways that are at risk. Our entire country is paying the price. Current infrastruc- ture gaps are anticipated to cost the United States $3.9 trillion in GDP and 2.5 million jobs by 2025 due to lost productivity. Failing infrastructure will cause U.S. businesses to become less efficient, raising the cost of doing business and forcing those costs onto consumers. From 2016 to 2025, American households are expected to lose on average $3,400 in income every year due to infrastructure defi- ciencies. Despite all of these costs, federal infrastructure spending has been on the decline and has failed to come anywhere close to meeting growing needs. If we want American businesses and workers to succeed, we need to start investing in bold structural changes that will strengthen our economy and prepare us for the future. Instead we just squan- dered $1.9 trillion on the Republican tax law that overwhelmingly benefitted the wealthy and did nothing to improve our nation’s economy or prepare us for the future. If we had invested anywhere close to that amount in our nation’s infrastructure instead, the impact would have been transformative. That is because in the short term, every one dollar invested in im- proving our infrastructure systems boosts economic output by $1.50 or more, making it a powerful economic stimulus. In the long term, investing in core infrastructure like transpor- tation, transit, and utilities will boost economic productivity and in- crease economic growth by simplifying supply chains, lowering shipping costs, and reducing roadway congestion. This growth will not only strengthen our nation’s fiscal outlook. It will also spur increases in employment and wages for years to come. Since more than 75 percent of infrastructure jobs are focused on operations rather than construction, many of these jobs will pro- vide long-term stability for working families across the country. The economic case for investing in infrastructure is clear, but the public health aspect alone should compel us to act. As shocking as it still is, we have water systems that are poisoning our families. Lead pipes in Flint, Michigan, created a water crisis that caught national headlines and highlighted a shameful failure of govern- ment. But it is not an isolated case. Just look at Newark, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Is- land. All have issues with lead contamination in their drinking water, and they are not the only ones. 3 How is it that in the wealthiest country in the world it is easier for a millionaire to get a tax cut than for hundreds of thousands of families to get safe drinking water? Our nation’s infrastructure bill is overdue, and it is already cost- ing us our health, our safety, and our economic potential. These are investments that at one point or another we will have to make if we care about the wellbeing of our communities and want to re- main competitive in the global marketplace. By investing now, we can modernize our infrastructure and in- corporate new technologies and greater resilience into our plans. We can address sustainability