This week, Progressive Fix will be focused on infrastructure.
That’s because the Progressive Policy Institute is co-hosting a major infrastructure forum this Wednesday through Friday here in Washington, D.C.
The timing of the forum couldn’t be better. It comes less than a month after President Obama laid out a plan for $50 billion in U.S. infrastructure investment.
As my colleague Scott Thomasson wrote at the time:
The President is sending a strong message this week that his administration’s thinking has moved beyond another round of scattershot stimulus toward a real plan for sustainable growth. Today’s speech suggests that the mantra for spending has changed from an obsession with injecting federal spending to thinking rationally about actually investing it. That’s welcome news, and it’s not a moment too soon.
This week we’ll be gathering leading experts from the private and public sector to talk about how to build on the President’s initiative and about how investing in infrastructure can create jobs and strengthen the American economy for the 21st century.
The forum will feature leading thinkers on infrastructure like Tom Friedman, Leo Hindery Jr., Ev Ehlrich, and PPI Fellow Mark Reutter, as well as political leaders on infrastructure like Congressman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), who has introduced legislation to create an infrastructure bank, and Sen. John Warner (D-VA)
We’ll be sponsoring panels on “High Speed Rail”, “Retooling the American Economy”, and “Financing Future Growth.”
The forum will also highlight the “top 100” strategic infrastructure projects and new PPI proposals for using public dollars to leverage private investment to create jobs and spur economic growth.
You can find a full program for the forum here. All events are at the Washington Hilton and open to the interested public.
To register for “Keeping America on Track: The Future of High-Speed Rail”, click here. For the North America Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, click here.
We will also be unveiling two new policy memos this week, one on high-speed rail and a second on an infrastructure bank.
Finally, check back with the Progressive Fix over the course of the week for full coverage of the panels. I’ll be reporting on all the great ideas that are sure to come out of this incredible collection of leading lights.
So stay tuned as we lay out a vision for a road forward on infrastructure.
