Obama Highlights Economic Impact of Highway Investment at White House Meeting

Infrastructure spending is the topic of the day at CE Unbound. Yesterday, President Obama held a meeting at the White House on the economic impact of infrastructure investment on our states and local communities, building off his Labor Day announcement of a bold new plan for modernizing and rebuilding America’s roads, railways and runways. 

The group also discussed a new report on infrastructure investment from the Department of the Treasury with the Council of Economic Advisers. The report discusses the positive economic impact infrastructure investment achieves by raising our nation’s economic output, enhancing America’s global economic competitiveness and creating good jobs for the middle class.

“This new study reinforces what AED [The Association of Leaders in Equipment Distribution] has been saying for years about the critical connection between infrastructure investment, the nation’s economic future, and the health of the construction equipment industry,” AED President Toby Mack said. “We’re pleased to see the White House’s new focus on infrastructure and look forward to working with President Obama and Congress in the months ahead to finish new highway, water, and airport bills and restore some sense of certainty to equipment markets.”

Specifically, the report finds that 80 percent of the jobs directly created by investing in transportation infrastructure would be in the construction, manufacturing and retail trade sectors. The report also finds that infrastructure investments have high bang for the buck because construction costs are low due to underutilized resources, and these investments would create jobs in sectors of the economy suffering from some of the highest levels of unemployment.

Joining the President were Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, former Secretaries of Transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner, Governors Ed Rendell and Jack Markell, and Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa, Mick Cornett, Julian Castro, Michael Coleman, Michael Nutter, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Kasim Reed and Joe Riley. The group discussed the current state of our transportation infrastructure in cities and states across the country, the challenges they face to improving their infrastructure and the short- and long-term economic impact of new infrastructure investment.