Future Infrastructure budget cuts are inevitable – We must locate other means of investment to rebuild and innovate

Adv: Inland Waterways

Vital inland waterways infrastructure is starting to fail—timely investments are key to prevent industry destruction

Aging Inland Waterways Infrastructure But this system is showing its age. The average age of the 192 commercially active locks in the U.S. now exceeds 50 years old. Many of the locks and dams in operation today were constructed during the 1930s, including most of the locks on such major systems as the Upper Mississippi, Illinois, and Tennessee Rivers. Even many “second generation” higher-lift locks and dams on the Ohio River were built largely in the 1950s and are now around 50 years of age themselves. An aging inland waterways infrastructure is not necessarily a concern as long as timely investments are made in maintenance and major rehabilitations, with some capacity and modernization improvements where needed. Just as we faithfully preserve and maintain aging iconic bridges, like the Brooklyn and the Golden Gate, with proper care and attention we can maintain our inland waterways infrastructure for decades to come. However, in constant dollar terms, operations and maintenance funding for the Corps’ civil works infrastructure has been largely flat or declining for decades, even as facilities have suffered the wear and tear of many years of constant use, and as requirements for other activities, such as environmental mitigation, have increased (see Figure 3).4 Long established programs for advance maintenance of principal lock components have essentially given way to a fix-as-fail policy, and even then the fix may take weeks or months to complete. Depending on the nature of the lock malfunction, this protracted repair time can have major consequences for barge traffic that depends on the facility, and for shippers and manufacturers depending on timely delivery of their cargo.

Inland waterways infrastructure is vital to the US economy and competitiveness—without systematic modernization, it is bound to collapse domestic and foreign trade

Inland Waterways: Manufacturers Rely on the Waterways for Competitiveness” http://www.nam.org/~/media/CAABA07F1B4746BAA7DA1C3EBAE1E3F7/Manufacturers_Rely_on_the_Waterways_for_Competitiveness.pdf

Economic decline, specifically in the area of trade decline, causes war – studies prove

Royal 10 (Jedediah, Director of Cooperative Threat Reduction at the U.S. Department of Defense, 2010, Economic Integration, Economic Signaling and the Problem of Economic Crises, in Economics of War and Peace: Economic, Legal and Political Perspectives, ed. Goldsmith and Brauer, p. 213-215)

Less intuitive is how periods of economic decline may increase the likelihood of external conflict. Political science literature has contributed a moderate degree of attention to the impact of economic decline and the security and defence behaviour of interdependent stales. Research in this vein has been considered at systemic, dyadic and national levels. Several notable contributions follow. First, on the systemic level. Pollins (20081 advances Modclski and Thompson's (1996) work on leadership cycle theory, finding that rhythms in the global economy are associated with the rise and fall of a pre-eminent power and the often bloody transition from one pre-eminent leader to the next. As such, exogenous shocks such as economic crises could usher in a redistribution of relative power (see also Gilpin. 19SJ) that leads to uncertainty about power balances, increasing the risk of miscalculation (Fcaron. 1995). Alternatively, even a relatively certain redistribution of power could lead to a permissive environment for conflict as a rising power may seek to challenge a declining power (Werner. 1999). Separately. Pollins (1996) also shows that global economic cycles combined with parallel leadership cycles impact the likelihood of conflict among major, medium and small powers, although he suggests that the causes and connections between global economic conditions and security conditions remain unknown. Second, on a dyadic level. Copeland's (1996. 2000) theory of trade expectations suggests that 'future expectation of trade' is a significant variable in understanding economic conditions and security behaviour of states. He argues that interdependent states arc likely to gain pacific benefits from trade so long as they have an optimistic view of future trade relations. However, if the expectations of future trade declines, particularly for difficult to replace items such as energy resources, the likelihood for conflict increases, as states will be inclined to use force to gain access to those resources. Crises could potentially be the trigger for decreased trade expectations either on its own or because it triggers protectionist moves by interdependent states.4 Third, others have considered the link between economic decline and external armed conflict at a national level. Mom berg and Hess (2002) find a strong correlation between internal conflict and external conflict, particularly during periods of economic downturn. They write. The linkage, between internal and external conflict and prosperity are strong and mutually reinforcing. Economic conflict lends to spawn internal conflict, which in turn returns the favour. Moreover, the presence of a recession tends to amplify the extent to which international and external conflicts self-reinforce each other (Hlomhen? & Hess. 2(102. p. X9> Economic decline has also been linked with an increase in the likelihood of terrorism (Blombcrg. Hess. & Wee ra pan a, 2004). which has the capacity to spill across borders and lead to external tensions. Furthermore, crises generally reduce the popularity of a sitting government. "Diversionary theory" suggests that, when facing unpopularity arising from economic decline, sitting governments have increased incentives to fabricate external military conflicts to create a 'rally around the flag' effect. Wang (1996), DcRoucn (1995), and Blombcrg. Hess, and Thacker (2006) find supporting evidence showing that economic decline and use of force arc at least indirecti) correlated. Gelpi (1997). Miller (1999). and Kisangani and Pickering (2009) suggest that Ihe tendency towards diversionary tactics arc greater for democratic states than autocratic states, due to the fact that democratic leaders are generally more susceptible to being removed from office due to lack of domestic support. DeRouen (2000) has provided evidence showing that periods of weak economic performance in the United States, and thus weak Presidential popularity, are statistically linked lo an increase in the use of force. In summary, rcccni economic scholarship positively correlates economic integration with an increase in the frequency of economic crises, whereas political science scholarship links economic decline with external conflict al systemic, dyadic and national levels.' This implied connection between integration, crises and armed conflict has not featured prominently in the economic-security debate and deserves more attention.

A National Infrastructure Bank can uniquely solve

National Association of Manufacturers 5/20/10 “20-Year Capital Plan for Nation’s

Inland Waterways: Manufacturers Rely on the Waterways for Competitiveness” http://www.nam.org/~/media/CAABA07F1B4746BAA7DA1C3EBAE1E3F7/Manufacturers_Rely_on_the_Waterways_for_Competitiveness.pdf

The waterways operators pay a 20-cent-per-gallon diesel fuel tax, and current tax revenues plus interest collect $85–$90 million per year for the Inland Waterway Trust Fund. Lock and dam projects are supported 50 percent from the fuel tax and 50 percent from the general fund. Current and projected trust fund balances cannot support annual investment requirements. Only six projects will be finished if we maintain the status quo. The revenue stream supported by the barge and towing industry is a significant contribution, and a 20-year plan is an important The U.S. inland navigation system—nearly 12,000 miles of commercially navigable inland and coastal waterways—plays a vital role in moving the nation’s freight. More than 60 percent of U.S. grain exports begin their journey on the inland waterways, and more than 30 percent of the oil and petroleum products used by industry moves by barge. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the inland waterways move over 50 percent of the nation’s grain and oilseed, approximately 20 percent of the coal for utility plants and 22 percent of domestic petroleum products. However, the waterways infrastructure, which handles shipments to and from 38 states each year, is aging with no real plan in place for systematic modernization. More than half of our nation’s 240 operational lock chambers owned and operated by the Army Corps of Engineers now exceed their 50-year design lifespan. Step to help end the unproductive cycle of project underfunding, cost escalations and delays. We hope the creative and collaborative thinking will expand beyond the proposed plan so that other opportunities can be discussed and considered. The proposed National Infrastructure Bank may provide an additional mechanism for funding key components of this system. The inland waterway operators appreciate the unique public private nature of the nation’s inland waterway system and believe that a strengthened partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers that is focused on improved project delivery, increased efficiency and transparency will better focus these critical federal investments.

NIB Key/AT CP

Inland waterway management agencies lack a coherent, non-conflicting national vision —a NIB would employ a unique goal-oriented decision-making process that is key to solve

Harry Moroz February 26, 2008 “The Age of Infrastructure”http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/age-infrastructure Harry Moroz graduated from the University of Chicago in 2006 with a B.A. in Law, Letters and Society. At Chicago, he wrote his honors thesis on alternative voting systems, focusing on the impact that the cumulative vote had on the political behavior of Illinois state representatives and their constituents. While a student, he studied at the University of Seville where he researched the socioeconomic factors that influenced the development of democracy in Spain and wrote for a local paper. Harry studied Latin American media and immigration issues during a Koch fellowship in Washington D.C. and interned at the office of Senator Joseph Biden. In 2006, he participated in a colloquium in Guatemala that addressed the effects of economic liberalization on Latin America. Harry is currently a research associate at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.

Despite the ASCE’s empirical evidence and our intuitive sense (when was the last time you sat bumper-to-bumper with an SUV or stood jowl-to-jowl with someone in the subway) that infrastructure is aging and inadequate, no large-scale effort has been undertaken to confront the problem in a comprehensive and purposeful manner. Even after a bridge collapsed in Minnesota , a steam pipe burst in New York City, and levees broke in New Orleans, attempts to mend our bridges, highways, and waterways still stall because of bureaucratic strife and ineffective funding. What often hinders large-scale infrastructure projects is not the knowledge that such projects are necessary or the lack of technical skill to carry them out. Rather, when politicians and government agencies tackle endeavors of such proportions, priorities clash, funding streams are challenged, and reputations are put on the line (For an international example, see Chile’s Transantiago bus service. Transantiago was designed to be self-financing, but is now expected to cost $40 million a month.). This means that massive construction plans become as much about individual personalities and personal ambition as about concrete, steel girders, and getting a car across the Hudson River. As Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institution remarked at a congressional hearing on ground transportation, “The sad fact is that now that the Interstate Highway System is completed there is no coherent national vision for addressing a complex and conflicting set of transportation challenges. As a result, America’s transportation policy is adrift with no clear goals, purpose, or ability to meet these challenges.” A unique solution to the bureaucratic and financial problems that often beset large-scale infrastructure projects has been proposed by Senators Chris Dodd and Chuck Hagel. On the morning of the Minnesota bridge collapse, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert pointed out, the senators announced their sponsorship of legislation to create a National Infrastructure Bank. The Bank would issue bonds to raise funds for infrastructure projects that would be selected based on a strict set of criteria. Applications would be accepted only for projects that cost at least $75 million, have a public sponsor (a state or local government), and are of regional or national significance. The Bank would then rate each application based on its promotion of economic growth, its mobility improvements, its reduction of poverty concentration, its environmental benefits, its potential to promote smart urban growth, and its regional or national significance (the criteria vary slightly for each type of infrastructure project).

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