By U.S. Senator Deb Fischer
Growing up, my dad was a civil engineer for the Nebraska Department of Roads. As kids, my brothers and I loved learning about his work. My dad would take us on Sunday road trips across Nebraska for “inspection tours” to check up on our state’s infrastructure.
Many of the photos I still treasure from my childhood are of us kids standing on partially finished bridges, in front of bulldozers, and next to highways under various stages of completion. Dad taught us how to drop a plumb line and showed us how to handle his surveying equipment.
Those trips with my dad taught me that infrastructure takes a long time to plan, a long time to permit, and a long time to build. Even short stretches of a single highway can sometimes take years to finish from beginning to end. Reliable infrastructure doesn’t happen overnight, nor by accident.
In the U.S. Senate, I still have that background in mind. Over my time serving in the Nebraska Legislature and now in the Senate, I’ve seen just how vital it is to both maintain and modernize infrastructure statewide and nationwide. Infrastructure is central to our safety, our transportation, and our economic success.
That’s why I prioritize infrastructure in the Senate. In 2021, I voted for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a consequential legislative package that is paying dividends for Nebraska. Last week, I saw that legislation deliver for Nebraska once again.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced new grants for our state through the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The IIJA funded the PHMSA, allowing the agency to provide almost $200 million in grants for projects in 19 different states, including Nebraska.
PHMSA awarded over $25 million to the Metropolitan Utilities District (MUD) in Omaha and over $1 million to the City of Wahoo. MUD will use this money to replace 89.1 miles of cast iron piping installed in the late 1800s, an initiative that will create 200 jobs. The City of Wahoo will replace 2.15 miles of natural gas piping installed in the early 1930s, creating 116 jobs. These upgrades to century-old pipes are vital to keep people safe and keep energy secure. At Friday’s important award announcement, I was grateful to visit with PHMSA personnel, MUD board members, Omaha and Wahoo elected officials, and others who are putting these grants into action.
This announcement was only one of the many accomplishments the IIJA has enabled. We’ve dedicated resources to roads, bridges, safety programs, airports, waterways, and railroads across the country. People from different states and with different political affiliations all understand the need to maintain and modernize this infrastructure, and that’s why we’re able to make so much progress on this issue.
In the Senate, we’ve passed policy after policy in the infrastructure and transportation field with bipartisan support. In 2015, we passed the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. In 2018, we reauthorized the Federal Aviation Administration. In 2020, I led efforts to reauthorize PHMSA, the very agency that announced awards to Nebraska on Friday — my bill was unanimously approved by both my Democratic and Republican colleagues.
As much as the Senate may struggle with partisan fighting, real, bipartisan, and responsible infrastructure reform is possible. We have done it before, and we can do it again. We all know investments in core infrastructure will grow our economy and local communities. Through infrastructure, we are providing greater economic opportunity to rising generations, delivering food to hungry people nationwide, and connecting communities — family to family, town to town, coast to coast. Infrastructure is a winning issue, and I’ll keep prioritizing it in the Senate.
Thank you for participating in the democratic process. I look forward to visiting with you again next week.