In meetings on Capitol Hill, city leaders came together during Infrastructure Week 2018 to highlight the current state of America’s infrastructure and tell Congress that we need a federal partner to invest in infrastructure with cities.
On Tuesday, May 15, NLC First Vice President Karen Freeman-Wilson and HD Committee Chair Gil Ziffer paved the way on Capitol Hill while meeting with professional staff from the Senate and House authorizing committees that overseeing workforce and education policy.
Highlighting the need to simultaneously invest in workforce development programming as we think about investment in traditional roads, bridges, water and broadband, they echoed the panelists from NLC’s Infrastructure Week briefing about the need to invest in the areas of workforce development that will ensure that our country can remain competitive.
In addition, NLC First Vice President Karen Freeman-Wilson, Community and Economic Development Federal Advocacy Committee Chair Gyna Bivens, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Federal Advocacy Committee Chair Cynthia Pratt, Finance, Administration and Intergovernmental Relations Federal Advocacy Committee Vice Chair Erica Spell, Information Technology and Communications Federal Advocacy Committee Vice Chair Corina Lopez, and Transportation and Infrastructure Services Chair Pam O’Connor joined NLC staff for our annual Infrastructure Week fly-in.
On Wednesday, May 16, NLC leaders and staff traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with key Members of Congress and committee staff to press them to make federal infrastructure investment a priority.
Particularly timely, our meeting with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment key committee members and staff occurred as they were putting the final touches on the soon to be released House version of the Water Resources Development Act authorization.
During the twelve meetings held throughout the day, NLC leaders told their own cities infrastructure story while also highlighting the hot topics of water infrastructure, workforce development and transportation issues.
Together, we ensured that federal decision-makers heard loud and clear that local leaders need a federal partner to invest in cities’ vision of rebuilding and reimagining America’s infrastructure.
About the Author: Ashley Smith is the Senior Associate for Grassroots Advocacy at the National League of Cities. Follow Ashley @AshleyN_Smith.