Congressional Response to Fragile Foundations: Analysis of Congressional Infrastructure Legislation Introduced Since 1988

Abstract

In 1988, the National Council on Public Works Improvement (NCPWI) issued a report, which made various recommendations with respect to national infrastructure policy. The recommendations included a commitment to double current spending, rational capital budgeting at the federal level, and incentives for better financing and management of public works investments. NCPWI's report was especially notable because Congress created the commission and asked for its views. The present paper analyzes Congressional legislation submitted since the issuance of the report and assesses the degree to which Congress responded to the guidance contained within the report. The analysis shows that there were many bills submitted that picked up the recommendations, but none of these bills passed, indicating a lack of national consensus around these issues. The only major bill that did pass and that did contain some of the ideas pondered by NCPWI was the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), indicating that while transportation has coherence as a national concern, infrastructure does not yet have that full-blown identity at the Congressional level.