Two months ago, we were all preparing for two important events relating to the critical needs of our infrastructure. The first was the April 23rd PPRA hosted webinar “The Damn Roads Still Need Fixed,” followed by the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) congressional fly-in scheduled for May 12-14 in Washington, D.C.
As we are all now painfully aware, Covid 19 and its disastrous and tragic ramifications canceled the fly-in and introduced us all to a new virtual world that allowed a record 100 registrants to attend that PPRA webinar.
While the cancelation of the fly-in is disappointing, the success of the webinar is heartening as we all continue the efforts to seriously work toward a bipartisan solution to the September 30, 2020 expiration of the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act,” or FAST Act.
While the Coronavirus has caused a delay in drafting legislation, the Senate continues its work on a five-year $287B bill, while the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee continues drafting its own bill with the hope that work will be finished in the next few weeks.
That’s why we need our PPRA members now, more than ever, to step up in this new virtual world and make contact with their Representatives and Senators to demand action to pass a robust infrastructure bill that either provides Federal stimulus funding to state and local governments or a highway reauthorization bill, or both.
There are links on both the PPRA and FP2 web sites as well as here that will take you to a letter that you can send to your elected officials in Washington, D.C. If you cannot find your elected official, that same link will assist you in that endeavor.
- FP2 Toolkit for Hosting Elected Officials
- Template Letter for Your Member of Congress
- Template for Congressional Site Visit Invitation
And finally, that link will allow you access a tool kit that will assist you in planning and setting up a visit, when the time is right, to your job sites, offices, production facilities, and laboratories.
These visits have shown the tremendous positive impact they have on Members of Congress as they meet your employees and see first-hand the benefits of recycling and preservation.
Whether it’s Scott Bergkamp hosting a town hall meeting in his manufacturing plant in Salina, KS with his employees and Representative Roger Marshall, or Dave Henderson with Heritage and AMI hosting a visit with their elected Representative at their research facility, or Representative Steve Watkins visiting a hot in-place recycling project in Kansas, the results of their experiences cannot be diminished.
So, take the letter that has been produced for your use and use it to get our shared message that it is indeed past time to address and solve our infrastructure challenges.
And do not be afraid to hit send more than once!
Photo 1: Roger Marshall (R-KS) tours Bergkamp Inc.’s Manufacturing Plant with Jason Bergkamp.
Photo 2: Representative (R-IN) Susan Brooks, touring Heritage Research Lab in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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