Bob Yaro appeared on the Fox Business News program, "Breakfast for
Money" and Bloomberg News to discuss the Obama Administration's upcoming
infrastructure spending plan. Watch the videos below.

 By Petra Todorovich

The crisis in our financial markets and the deepening national recession suggest difficult times for the United States. But, sometimes a crisis is necessary to rally sufficient leadership and popular support for radical changes to address entrenched policies, practices, and inertia.

With regard to infrastructure and economic recovery, we have two key challenges to meet.

First, we must rally support for making sufficiently bold investments to put people to work and make transformative investments in infrastructure.

Second, we must ensure that the choices we make about infrastructure provide new models of decision making and accountability to obtain investments that will transition the nation to be a low-carbon economy with energy independence, and a sustainable, equitable future.

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December 15 - U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Congressman John Mica (R-FL) joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City today to announce the Department of Transportation's request for proposals for high-speed rail investment in corridors across the United States. Citing the energy efficiency, convenience, and economic competitiveness benefits of high-speed rail, the political leaders lamented the slow progress of the U.S. in implementing modern high-speed rail technology.

The new high-speed rail initiative announced today by the U.S. DOT is a small program in  the recently enacted Rail Safety Act, signed into law by President Bush in October 2008. Much more significant is the authorization of approximately $13 billion for Amtrak and U.S. states for operating and capital costs related to intercity and high-speed rail. The focus of today's press conference, the issuance of a request for proposals for private investment in high-speed rail should result in an interesting preview of whether private investors consider rail a profit-making enterprise. At best, it should garner some new energy, ideas, and proposals for how to make this long overdue technology available in the U.S. At worst, it could distract from the urgent task at hand --bringing America's existing rail network up to a state of good repair and implementing dependable, regular, and more frequent intercity services in corridors around the U.S. 

New York Channel 4 reported on the new conference below.

A coalition of leading civic, business, environmental organizations and transportation officials convened by America 2050 released a statement today calling on the incoming Obama administration and the U.S. Congress to invest wisely in the proposed economic stimulus plan focused on infrastructure.

Responding to President-elect Obama's video address on December 6 announcing the "largest investment in infrastructure since the National Highway System," the group urged the President-elect to get this investment right with a five-step program: Fix, Phase, Green, Train and Count.

America 2050 Infrastructure Recommendations: Stimulus-Economic Recovery-Renewal

I.    FIX: To immediately create jobs and stimulate economic growth we need to "fix it first," that is, invest in the repair and maintenance of the country's deteriorated bridges, roads, public transit, passenger & freight rail, electric grids and other essential infrastructure components that have been neglected for decades. 

II.    PHASE: All the monies cannot be spent at once. While we must get a first group of "shovel ready" projects under construction as soon as possible, there are limits to the number of projects that can be initiated immediately. A series of phases should allow for the development of strategic projects, job training, and the building of capacity in construction, manufacturing, engineering and project management fields - all of which are essential to successfully carrying out the work.

III.    GREEN: Priority should be given to projects that foster energy independence, safeguard the environment, promote healthy & compact communities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

IV.    TRAIN: Investment in America's infrastructure will create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs, both immediately and for decades to come. To ensure that these large-scale projects are completed quickly and successfully, we need to invest in job training programs that will provide our workforce with the required skills. And, equally important, the jobs should be accessible to the people in the communities most deeply affected by the current economic crisis.

V.    COUNT: Funding must be set aside to measure and analyze the results of these federal investments and their outcomes: job creation, cost-effectiveness, greenhouse gas reductions, increased energy efficiency, etc.

ACCOUNTABILITY - NEW OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

If America is to remain economically competitive, we cannot afford "business as usual" when it comes to infrastructure investments. Therefore, a new federal oversight committee is required to both streamline the investment process and also establish accountability.

We propose creating a National Recovery and Renewal Council, comprised of representatives from federal, state, and city agencies, as well as the private sector. The Council would report directly to the White House, charged with eliminating the red tape in implementing projects, as well as developing criteria and accountability measures that will guarantee that America meets its infrastructure goals, from energy independence to reduced carbon emissions to increased mobility.

Download the Statement here.

Audio recordings are now available from the forum, "Rebuilding and Renewing America: Infrastructure Choices in the Great Lakes Megaregion" held on November 17 by Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council and New York's Regional Plan Association.

The purpose of the forum was to identify and prioritize strategic investments in transportation, water, and energy infrastructure to be included in a national infrastructure and economic stimulus plan.

View a slide show of the event. 

Audio recordings were made by Chicago Amplified, a web-based audio archive of Chicago Public Radio. All recordings were made November 17, 2008 at the Chicago Hyatt Regency. The recordings include:

Opening Plenary Session with speakers MarySue Barrett, Robert Yaro,  Anne Prammagiore, Canadian Minister Peter Gordon MacKay,  U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, and John McCarron.

Roundtable on Transportation, featuring Petra Todorovich, Maureen McAvey, Rob Puentes, Ilana Preuss, and Michael McLaughlin

Roundtable on Water, featuring Al Appleton,  Samuel Speck, Deborah Shore, MaryAnn Dickenson, Katherine Baer, and Cameron Davis

Roundtable on Energy, featuring Catherine Morris, Sadhu Johnston, Kyle Barry, Wally Tyner, Anne Evens, and Val Jensen

MPO Collaboration in the Great Lakes Megaregion, featuring Randy Blankenhorn, Steve Ernst, Chester Jourdan, Terry Kohlbuss, Tony Reams, John Swanson, David Warm and Robin Snyderman.

Report Out and Closing Remarks, featuring MarySue Barrett, Catherine Morris, Al Appleton, Petra Todorovich, and Bob Yaro

Featured speakers included U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Tom Petri (R-WI) and Canadian Minister of Defense and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, Peter Gordon MacKay. Download the Agenda

This forum was organized locally by the Metropolitan Planning Council and nationally by the Regional Plan Association, which is grateful for funding support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
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California Senate President pro Tempore-Elect Darrell Steinberg will headline America 2050's regional infrastructure forum in Sacramento on December 2, 2008. Steinberg authored the groundbreaking new California law, SB-375, which provides incentives to regions who produce integrated land use and transportation plans to cut carbon emissions.

The forum, titled, "Investing in America's Competitiveness: An Infrastructure Strategy for the Nation and the Megaregion," will bring together 100 leaders from the business, civic, government, and academic communities in the Northern California megaregion to discuss a national and megaregional agenda for infrastructure investment that could shape the economic recovery plans of the Obama Administration and the new U.S. Congress in 2009.

The forum is hosted by a collaboration of Northern California civic and government organizations including the Bay Area Council, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), Sacramento Council of Governments, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the San Joaquin Council of Governments, in conjunction with New York's Regional Plan Association.  It will contribute to an ongoing effort to create a national infrastructure plan that could shape an economic stimulus bill and economic recovery plan next year.  Leaders from the Northern California business, civic, government, and academic communities are encouraged to attend and help define this emerging federal-megaregion agenda. 

Download the Agenda.

For more information, please contact Lauren Straub at the Bay Area Council at (415) 946-8727 or lstraub@bayareacouncil.org.

This month, America 2050 released its most recent report: An Infrastructure Vision for 21st Century America. This report highlights the need to develop a bold and compelling vision for investing in the nation's aging water, energy, and transportation infrastructure in a way that will help America meet the key challenges of the 21st century. These challenges include America's fast-growing population, deteriorating infrastructure, the deepening recession, our competitiveness in a global economy, fairness and opportunity, and climate change and energy security.   

The report makes the case that the federal government should provide leadership in aligning its energy, transportation and water infrastructure policies to support environmentally sustainable development, efficient and reliable transportation systems, and sustained, robust economic growth. Currently, many of the federal government's programs are ineffective or obsolete, or work at cross purposes, such as transportation policy that increases our reliance on foreign oil, or federal farm subsidies that encourage fertilizer and pesticide use that pollutes our drinking water.

Over the next year, America 2050 will build on this report to create physical plans for national systems of transportation networks, electrical transmission and water infrastructure and specific policies to encourage greater accountability, decision-making criteria for project selection and performance measures.

October 15: On the eve of the final presidential debate, civic leaders gathered with government officials in multiple cities across the country to launch the "Build for America" campaign, making the link between strengthening America's economy and building a 21st century transportation system. In New York, America 2050 joined with Transportation For America, Regional Plan Association, The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, Transportation Alternatives, and the New York General Contractors Association at Grand Central Terminal to call on the Presidential candidates and the next Congress to boost America's economy by building 21st Century transportation in America.

Speakers at the New York City event included DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, MTA chief executive Lee Sander, and U.S. representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney.  These leaders focused on the potential positive economic impact of federal spending on infrastructure in the face of a private sector slowdown.  They stressed that in contrast to short term stimulus packages, these transportation investments would provide both short term and long term benefits: boosting the economy in the short term by providing jobs, and ensuring long term competitiveness as a country by providing capacity for efficient and sustainable economic growth. View press coverage of this event here.