Associated Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) hosted a virtual briefing for dozens of national and trade reporters to discuss current federal infrastructure proposals and their potential impact on the $288 billion equipment manufacturing industry.
The briefing featured AEM President Dennis Slater; AEM Infrastructure Vision 2050 Taskforce Chair and Vermeer Corp. President and CEO Jason Andringa; and AEM Infrastructure Vision 2050 Taskforce Vice Chair and Husco International CEO Austin Ramirez.
Infrastructure has been all the buzz on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, as negotiations continue on a number of infrastructure proposals from White House and Congress. President Biden announced he’d reached an infrastructure deal with a group of Republican and Democratic senators, saying both sides gave up some things they wanted to get a rare accord in a bitterly divided Washington, D.C. Biden said, however, he won’t sign the bipartisan infrastructure deal if Congress doesn’t also pass a reconciliation bill.
During the virtual event, Slater, Andringa and Ramirez offered their perspectives on what infrastructure legislation could look like and how it would potentially benefit the equipment manufacturing industry and its 2.8 million men and women. The executives discussed the multiple infrastructure proposals, the industry’s infrastructure policy priorities, and its call to action to lawmakers to act on this generational opportunity.
Ramirez said, “This bill needs to be bipartisan. There’s bipartisan support in Congress and among the American people. A bipartisan bill will be better than one that is written solely by one party. I think there’s no reason for this not to be a bipartisan piece of legislation that passes. Now, time will tell if that’s an overly optimistic view, but if there’s anything that can pass in the current political environment on a bipartisan basis, it’s infrastructure, and I certainly hope they are able to achieve that.
“There’s nothing that should be a ‘poison pill’ in infrastructure legislation. We certainly don’t want to see a big increase in corporate taxes that would make the U.S. economy less competitive, but I don’t think there’s anything that we should rule out. If a bill is passed on a bipartisan basis, I’m confident that it will strike a reasonable balance between taxes and spending and pay-fors for a bill that will really move America forward.”
Andringa said, “I do think it’s important that we be very open that infrastructure is more than just roads and bridges. It’s fiber optic, it’s water and sewer, it’s electrical infrastructure, it’s natural gas infrastructure, all of that is important. It’s the infrastructure for this next wave of electric vehicles and for smart roads. To me, that is all infrastructure.
“From my perspective, I think it’s also very important to think about climate resiliency as part of infrastructure. The science and data are quite clear. Climate change is occurring, and hurricanes are becoming more prevalent and stronger. Like I mentioned earlier, we got hit by a derecho in Iowa last year. Look at the drought and the risk of fire in the Western United States right now. That is looking dire. So, infrastructure also needs to be investing in our infrastructure in a way that will make it more resilient to an increased frequency and intensity of storms and other natural disasters going forward.”
Slater said, “Equipment manufacturers hate uncertainty. So, what you also create by getting an infrastructure bill passed is knowing what the investment will be, and manufacturers will know they have that market certainty. They can hire, they can invest in staff. I think that helps the employment aspect of infrastructure. You invest in your communities that you’re in. The market certainty that would come from this legislation is critical to the rural communities our members operate in, not just the fact that we get more business. Ultimately, it will make the entire U.S. economy more competitive, which is also important to that equation.”