While the nation’s infrastructure has seen slight improvement since the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its last report card in 2009—from D to D+—the group warns that, without a major commitment and investment, the roads, bridges, drinking water systems, mass transit systems, schools and systems for delivering energy that we depend on “may soon fail to meet society’s needs.”  

What would it cost if the nation’s crumbling infrastructure of bridges, roads, rails, sewer systems, power grids, airports and more is allowed to deteriorate at its current pace? Some 3.5 million jobs and $3.1 trillion in lost economic output by 2020. What would it cost to avoid that? About $1.1 trillion in additional investment.

Sure sounds like a great return on the investment and it is, according to a new report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The study, Failure to Act, finds that:

Ninety-two years ago yesterday, U.S. women won the right to vote.

The Indiana State AFL-CIO mentioned in an e-mail yesterday, Rose Schneiderman, who headed the Women’s Trade Union League, explained in 1918:

We want to tell our Senators that the working women of our State demand the vote as an economic necessity. We need it because we are workers and because the workers are the ones that have to carry civilization on their backs.

The anniversary is a good time to reflect on how women would fare under a Romney-Ryan administration.

The U.S. House yesterday removed a major roadblock to a long-term reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Act when it approved (293-127) funding for highways, roads, bridges and transit systems through Sept. 30.

Instead of acting on a long-term, bipartisan surface transportation bill, House Republican leaders today pushed and passed another short-term extension, just hours before they are due to leave town on a two-week recess. Funding authorization expires Saturday, and the Senate is expected to approve the 90-day extension.

A new report sheds light on how the shrinking middle class can be tied to a growing decline of America’s roads, bridges, transit systems and energy grids—because "high levels of economic inequality have distorted our democratic process."

A week ago, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters his plan was to take up the Senate’s bipartisan highway bill, which will create or save nearly 3 million jobs. Now he refuses.

The U.S. Senate today passed (77-22) a bipartisan surface transportation bill. The two-year, $100 billion funding bill will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and help build and maintain the nation’s highways, roads, bridges and transit systems. The current funding runs out March 31. The bill now goes to the House, which introduced a job-killing, partisan version earlier this year.

The Ironworkers today send us this video of their action at the South Capitol Street Bridge in Washington D. C., with the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) during last week’s AFL-CIO’s Infrastructure Investment Day of Action. The actions highlighted dozens of bridges across the nation in desperate need of repair and called on Congress to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.

Jay Hurley, president of the New England Ironworkers District Council, says he wanted to prove a point to those who claim that the recent focus on the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s bridges and infrastructure is overblown.