Trump, Safety and the IIJA
As of March 1, there are 213 days remaining until the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) expires.
That means the clock is ticking for industry leaders to persuade lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to extend the bipartisan infrastructure law or pass a new one before Sept. 30.
A new infrastructure law seems out of the question. Congress is too slow, too politically divided. It’s a miracle the IIJA passed in 2021, and I fear extending it would require a similar act of God.
My pessimism can be attributed to President Donald Trump. If he wants it to happen, it will happen. Since he only mentioned energy-related infrastructure in his State of the Union address, roads and bridges do not seem to be a priority.
To make it a priority, President Trump likely will ask: What’s in it for him?
He has a history of undoing the accomplishments of his Democratic predecessors. Convincing him to extend President Joe Biden’s biggest achievement is going to demand more incentives.
Recently, he slapped his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. So, rename the IIJA the Trump Infrastructure Act. Will that be enough? Probably not. Get ready to rename bridges and highways.
What do you mean your state doesn’t have a Trump Memorial Bridge? Do you want federal funding or not?
There is a more ethical approach, and it should pressure lawmakers, specifically Republicans in Congress, to convince President Trump to make extending the IIJA a priority: Safety.
The push to reauthorize the IIJA needs to be shaped around safety. It is fact-based, and safety is a topic that gets bipartisan support.
The pitch should go like this: Since 2019, more than 38,000 Americans per year have died on our roads. Reauthorizing the IIJA protects the lives of our citizens, strengthens domestic industry and ensures taxpayer dollars are used wisely.
Road safety is not just about driver behavior. Infrastructure conditions — deteriorating pavement, outdated interchanges, inadequate lighting, narrow rural shoulders, aging bridges — increase crash risk and worsen crash severity. Rural communities suffer disproportionately high per-capita fatality rates. These regions depend heavily on federal highway dollars because local tax bases cannot fund major capital improvements alone.
Funding uncertainty would stall projects midstream, raise costs due to delay and inject instability into state transportation budgets and private contractors. Markets dislike uncertainty, and so do voters.
Reauthorization also is a national security issue. Roads and bridges move agricultural exports, domestic energy, manufactured goods and military equipment. If President Trump is serious about reshoring industry and competing with China, he cannot neglect the physical backbone of our economy.
If that doesn’t work, the next bridge collapse will be a political firestorm.
About the Author
Gavin Jenkins, Senior Managing Editor
Senior Managing Editor
Gavin Jenkins is an award-winning journalist based in Pittsburgh. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, Narrative.ly, Prevention, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Beijing Review.
In 2020, two stories he wrote for Pitt Med Magazine earned three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. “Surviving Survival” won Excellence in Corporate, Marketing and Promotional Communications – Written, Medical/Health, while “Oct. 27, 2018: Pittsburgh’s Darkest Day, and the Mass Casualty Response” won Excellence in Written Journalism, Magazines – Medical/Health, as well as the Ray Sprigle Memorial Award: Magazines, a Best in Show award.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 2003, he covered sports for the Bedford Gazette, in Bedford, Pa., and the Martinsville Bulletin, in Martinsville, Va. In 2006, he returned to Pittsburgh to write for Trib Total Media. Based out of the Kittanning Leader Times, he worked for the Trib for two years, and then he moved to Shenzhen, China, to teach English and freelance. After two years in China, he earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Pittsburgh.
When he's not at work, he's usually playing with his border-collie mix, Bob.