The Shame of U.S. Infrastructure. And It Could Get Worse. Soon.
Since the latest novel I’m writing (My Summer as Suicide Saunders, Auto Daredevil) takes place in 1957, I’ve had to draw on events and culture of that time as my backdrop. One of the key events of that decade was enactment of the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act, a program that built most of the interstate highways Americans have been using since.
When it became possible for motorists to travel quickly from here to there, even from coast to coast, all manner of other things happened, much of it unforeseeable by the Congress that approved the expense.
For instance:
More drivers on the road meant the need for more off-road places to eat and sleep. That birthed mega franchises like Holiday Inn, McDonald’s and their competitors. Because commercial trucks could move cargo quickly, Sam Walton could build Walmart, offering big box store inventories that drew huge customer bases that ultimately devastated small rural retailers and the downtowns where they operated. Because workers could more quickly get to their jobs from homes outside cities, suburbia was born. And so on.
The 1956 highway act changed just about everything in America. Jobs. Housing. Travel. Commerce. It was a big deal, one of the biggest of the post World War II era.
How Global Innovation Outpaces the Infrastructure Act
And the shame of it is that it would be 65 years, 2021, until Congress would enact another major infrastructure act.
Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world roared past us, not just with roads and bridges, but with rail, airports, and other vital infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia has just completed the longest automated driverless rapid transit network on earth. Japan is building maglev trains. European nations are linking their power grids across borders and oceans. China has built the world’s largest water diversion network, moving billions of cubic meters of water hundreds of miles through advanced canal systems to feed dry northern cities. South Korea has built Songdo, a city so futuristic that, get this, has pneumatic trash tubes that suck waste directly from homes to recycling centers.
And the U.S.?
Periodically, the American Society of Civil Engineers grades the state of U.S. infrastructure. In 2025, that grade was just a C. But C was the highest national grade issued since the reports began in 1998, an upgrade resulting from the major infrastructure act Congress enacted in 2021. That C is an average, led by improvements in rail, bridges, broadband, hazardous and solid waste disposal. Roads, schools, energy and transit all still merited D grades.
It could get worse. If Congress doesn’t act before September 30, the authority and money for the 2021 infrastructure program expires. That would create havoc for tens of billions of dollars of projects in the construction pipeline and even threatens the Highway Trust Fund, the long term backbone of U.S. highway, rail and bridges construction and repair work.
The Threat to Infrastructure Act Funding and America's Future
Would Congress let that happen? We’ve learned through sad experience that with the current Congress, and president, anything, no matter how bizarre, is possible. Trump is withholding project money from states that didn’t vote for him in 2024. He’s holding many important bills hostage unless they include his SAVE act which makes voting harder. The House is divided, and not just between Democrats and Republicans. The Senate seems paralyzed by the filibuster. In 2021, 200 Republican House members and 30 Republican senators voted against the infrastructure act. It passed only because Democrats then controlled congressional majorities and the White House.
That act launched $550 billion in new infrastructure investments, such as the new Hudson tunnel project linking New York and New Jersey, repair of a heavily congested bridge over the Ohio River, hundreds of thousands of long-needed road and bridge repairs, thousands of low emission school buses, lead pipe replacements, grid transmission updates and vast expansion of the nation’s broadband system.
Like the highway act of 1956, the infrastructure act of 2021 was a big deal. But because of the long runway needed for many major projects to be planned and executed, they aren’t completed quickly. Ten to 13 years was the timeline forecast for the 1956 projects. The 2021 act was a far more ambitious effort to bring U.S. infrastructure up to date after years of neglect.
Have you heard about the danger that the 2021 act money may expire? From the media? From anyone in Congress? From anyone running for Congress? Neither have I.
My suggestion to candidates: In your advertising and speeches, tone down the wall-to-wall negativity and talk about the America that’s possible. Not just futuristic, like flying cars but action needed to address immediate needs. Like extending the 2021 infrastructure projects and adding to them.
America is the richest country in the world. The next Congress needs to rebalance our economy so we can act like it.
Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net
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