WASHINGTON, DC (July 1, 2014) – Today, President Obama visited the Key Bridge in Washington, D.C., where he urged Congress to take action to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and make long-term investments like those that the administration and the Department of Transportation have proposed in the GROW AMERICA Act, a four-year transportation proposal that will address the deferred maintenance and repairs that have added up over decades. The following is a statement from BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director Kim Glas, who attended the president’s speech:

“With the backdrop of one of Washington’s busiest bridges—driven over by millions of commuters and businesses each year—the president called out Congress for bringing the Highway Trust Fund to the brink of bankruptcy. When it comes to our transportation infrastructure, people need, and expect Congress to get the job done. The Highway Trust Fund could be insolvent as early as next month and without it, thousands of jobs and billions in investments to protect public safety and ensure economic opportunity will go on hold or disappear in states across the country.

“The Key Bridge is one of 63,000 structurally deficient bridges in this country. Problems caused by deferred maintenance and investment also extend to our power grid, wastewater, transit and communication systems. The state of our nation’s infrastructure not only impacts our economy, but our environment suffers as well. Congress should act now, not just to make the repairs desperately needed, but to build the modern infrastructure essential to create and sustain jobs and to build a stronger, more competitive economic future. The GROW AMERICA Act will help us accomplish just that.”

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