House Agriculture Committee Hearing on the State of Infrastructure in Rural America
- Rep. Conaway (R-TX): Over 200 organizations participate in the Rebuild Rural Coalition that bring awareness to the financing of rural waterways, highways, electric systems, telephone, and research infrastructure. The improvement of these areas in important to involve 50 million rural Americans in our economy.
- Halverson: It is estimated that it will require $190 billion to cover replacing outdated rural water and wastewater infrastructure.
- Halverson: It is also estimated that 40% of rural Americans do not have access to the target for minimum Internet service.
- Calhoun: “The American Society of Civil Engineers’ most recent infrastructure report card doled out the following grades: Roads, D; inland waterways, D; and bridges, C+.”
- Calhoun: Inland waterway systems are crucial to grain commodities for transportation. Most of the dams and locks are out of codes, which leads to a stoppage of work for repairs that has increased 700% in the last decade.
- Calhoun: By 2050 the world’s challenge will be feeding 9 billion people and estimations assert that we will fall short of this goal unless inland waterway systems are fixed with the required $9 billion.
