Industry measures infrastructure prospects, regulatory relief under Trump

Late in his successful White House campaign, GOP candidate Donald Trump introduced what he called “a bold, visionary plan for a cost-effective system of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railroads, ports and waterways, and pipelines in the proud tradition of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed the interstate highway system.” Construction interests take those observations to heart, along with the effect of a Trump Administration on federal agencies driving employment, environmental and land management policy.

“Donald Trump has continually stated his intention to invest up to $1 trillion in our country’s infrastructure and rebuild America’s roads, bridges and highways. He also promised to issue a temporary moratorium on new regulations that are not compelled by Congress and eliminate existing ones like EPA’s controversial Waters of the United States rule,” says National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association CEO Michael Johnson. The participation of thousands of stakeholders in the Vote Aggregates campaign, he added in a post-election statement, “is a great sign that our members are working to ensure that the aggregates industry’s voice will be heard in this and future elections so that lawmakers understand the value of our operations.”

“President-elect Trump will have a ‘can do’ industry as his partner in rebuilding and expanding the nation’s transportation infrastructure to make it again second to none,” affirms American Road & Transportation Builders Association CEO Pete Ruane. “Republicans in Congress should heed the call of their party’s leader and make urgently-needed improvements of national infrastructure networks a top priority in early 2017 … Republicans and Democrats have routinely worked in a bipartisan manner to support infrastructure legislation. All sides should view a long-term infrastructure package as an opportunity to come together and make meaningful progress for the American people.”

“Associated Builders and Contractors looks forward to working with this administration to craft policies rooted in free enterprise that will encourage open competition and result in greater business investment and more construction jobs,” notes ABC President Michael Bellaman. “With his background in real estate and development, Donald Trump is very familiar with the obstacles to economic growth ABC members face, including our broken regulatory system, the increasingly difficult challenge of finding affordable health care coverage for employees, a growing shortage of appropriately skilled labor, and the highest effective tax rate of any industry. We urge his administration to implement policies that guarantee a fair and level playing field for all contractors, regardless of labor affiliation, such as prohibiting the government from mandating discriminatory project labor agreements.”




National Ready Mixed Concrete Association Government Affairs staff charted the positive outcome of races involving Congressional candidates friendly to concrete production and end-use markets.