plus is all they get according to the american society of civil engineers infrastructure report card the document shows fifty three percent of all schools need improvements to reach good condition this includes investments to make repairs renovations and modernization what's especially concerning here is that half of us schools are at least fifty years old and with that comes a number of problems such as poor air quality lead pipes for drinking water and heating and cooling systems failures all these factors can affect the health of people who use the facilities more than twenty years ago the u.s. government accountability office put out a report that showed that as many as twenty eight million students attended schools with significant structural problems including fifteen thousand schools with unsafe indoor air quality more recently news headlines have featured some massive issues at schools for example philadelphia schools with lead paint flaking from the walls schools in south west virginia that are falling apart and baltimore schools which had to be closed for weeks during the co

plus is all they get according to the american society of civil engineers infrastructure report card the document shows fifty three percent of all schools need improvements to reach good condition this includes investments to make repairs renovations and modernization what's especially concerning here is that half of us schools are at least fifty years old and with that comes a number of problems such as poor air quality lead pipes for drinking water and heating and cooling systems failures all these factors can affect the health of people who use the facilities more than twenty years ago the u.s. government accountability office put out a report that showed that as many as twenty eight million students attended schools with significant structural problems including fifteen thousand schools with unsafe indoor air quality more recently news headlines have featured some massive issues at schools for example philadelphia schools with lead paint flaking from the walls schools in south west virginia that are falling apart and baltimore schools which had to be closed for weeks during the co

of necessary repairs and upgrades. in its annual infrastructure report card, the american society of civil engineers calculated that the gap between our needs and expected federal funding for infrastructure projects in this country over $2 next decade exceeds trillion. we have an opportunity to unleash our economy and the creation of good jobs by repairing and rebuilding our aging infrastructure. to do so, congress must commit to real multi-year and fully funded authorizing bills that tackle the backlog for transportation networks and water infrastructure. not only will addressing our infrastructure but more americans to work. at the center for american progress notes, doing so will also increase private sector efficiency for decades to come. at the same time, we must also build the innovative infrastructure for the future. not only do we need to repair and replace, such as the steam pipe that blew up in new york just the other day and we see in flint, michigan, but congress should ensure america has a reliable and efficient electrical grid that includes clean energy resources. maderid has to be resilient in the face o

america's crumbling infrastructure perhaps is that it hasn't entirely collapsed just last year the american society of civil engineers gave the us a d. plus grade in infrastructure report card a d. minus in transit and while it may not exactly be failing a de has been deadly for american highways railways and waterways that puts america decades behind countries like japan china and the e.u. in washington fairmont test r t. twenty six in u.s. presidential election both candidates former secretary of state hillary clinton and now president donald trump had a virtual bidding war on which one could offer more money for infrastructure proposal check it out i am asking both parties to come together to give us safe fast reliable and modern infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve. as president mr trump pushed for tax cuts instead of infrastructure and that certainly is parag of although the huge allocation of resources two point three trillion dollars over ten years for the tax cuts means that there is little money and less appetite for infrastructure concurrently mr trump a campaign promise on infrastructure spending is but a distant memory with seemingly no b

madam president, the american society of civil engineers conducts a comprehensive assessment of our nation's infrastructure every four years. its most recent report card from 2,017 shows that america's infrastructure remains poor and in desperate need of investment. in fact, the engineers award a grade of only d plus for our nation's infrastructure. to give you some statistics to emphasize why we are receiving such a low grade, let me talk about our nation's bridges. one in nine of our nation's bridges is rated as structurally deficient, and the average age of our country's more than 600,000 bridges is 42 years old. our national highway system contains infrastructure that is now well past its useful life. some bridges are more than 100 years old, and many are unable to a come date -- accommodate today's traffic volumes. madam president, i was recently in piscattawis county where a tiger grant was allowing the replacement of some very old rural bridges. the amount of rust on these bridges and the narrow width made them extraordinarily dangerous. they were at risk of being posted so that traffic could only go across in one direction, and when you looked