Infrastructure Week: From Laugh Line To Realization

 #324: Bringing Ten Republicans On Board

.........................

The Senate filibuster, unless Democrats junk it, seems to have a stranglehold over our policy options.

Fighting Climate Change, ensuring Voting Rights, addressing Immigration, all would require an unlikely 60-vote margin to pass--the cause of much consternation among Democrats.  True, there's the chance that a mere 50 Democrats could agree to a 'Reconciliation' on budgetary matters relating to infrastructure/taxation, but there might be a more likely way.

Infrastructure (transportation, energy, and communication) has one thing that's a bit different from other policy objectives: it's often location specific.  A community in Texas may be interested in storing energy with utility scale batteries to avoid the next power outage.  For a small town on the prairie, it may be high-speed internet to attract new businesses.  Meanwhile, an east coast city might consider public transportation its number one need--to allow car-free living, and thus reduce a resident's overall cost of living. 

At first, this doesn't strike one as all that significant, until you realize that giving voice to local concerns is what makes legislation popular: my money going to solve my problems, and in a big way.  Sure, there are things all communities need: building retrofits to enhance energy efficiency, for example, but how would we otherwise know what each community really wants from an Infrastructure bill?  

We wouldn't.  And that's why giving locals a voice in selecting projects to become the Infrastructure bill might be enough to peel off ten Republicans.  

* Set aside an Infrastructure Week (possibly month) in the distant future

* Issue broad guidelines (inclusivity, sustainability, local labor, maximum effect)   

* Promote the idea that anybody can submit local ideas to complement those that have widespread appeal

* Invite members of the House and Senate (and their staff) to consider locally focused submissions

* Publish them all, and allow a popular vote, nation-wide, and within each house district and state.

* Unveil legislation based on these proposals.

It would be hard for house and senate members to avoid participating.  How would they face their constituents in 2022 if they refused to participate, or voted 'no' on jobs and 'internal improvements'?  Especially when voter favorites were involved.

At the end of the day, if Republicans refuse to participate, Democrats would have the perfect vehicle for Reconciliation (the plan's expenditures, coupled with taxes on the super-rich).  And if the bill passed, local investments would be the obvious feel good issue in the 2022 election.

.....................................

BTW, the polling organization, Data For Progress finds these broad-based infrastructure items to be the most popular:

 1. investments that upgrade aging water infrastructure

 2. funding that helps small farmers expand sustainable farming practices

 3. the creation of a Climate Conservation Corps

 4. a GI Bill for fossil fuel workers

Also popular:

5. R&D on promising new energy systems

6. Updates to the power grid (latest idea: underground, next to roads and tracks, thus avoiding right-of-way litigation)

7. New incentives and a charging network for electric vehicles