[Themaintainers] Biden Infrastructure bill

[Andrew Russell]

Hi Maintainers! 

I keep thinking of people on this list as I read about the “American Jobs Plan,” aka the Biden infrastructure bill.  The bill and debates around it are reviving many of the 'greatest hits’ of infrastructure studies and policy, including favorites such as: what counts as infrastructure? who pays for it, when, and how? what values and agendas are being advanced, and what fears or aspirations does the bill speak to?

See for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/business/economy/biden-infrastructure-plan.html 
I was happy to see the NYT highlight this element - "Officials cast the $400 billion spending on in-home care in part as a salve to “underpaid and undervalued” workers in that industry, who are disproportionately women of color.”  I’ve been following (and rooting for!) the advocacy campaigns of groups such as Caring Across Generations <https://caringacross.org/> that, it seems, have made major advances in moving the political discourse to be closer to what academics and researchers see as vital aspects of societal infrastructure.

(Of course, there are a variety of perspectives shaping political postures in Washington - see for example https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-spending-plan-billed-as-infrastructure-bill-spends-non-infrastructure, "The White House is casting a very wide net about what constitutes infrastructure — for example, the American Jobs Plan references "care infrastructure" when talking about $25 billion to upgrade child care facilities and a $400 billion expenditure on care for the elderly and disabled. That's quite different from repairing potholes and rebuilding bridges.”) 

And so on - fun times for us infrastructure nerds :)

Andy




_____

Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
+ Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, SUNY Polytechnic Institute
+ Co-Director, The Maintainers <https://themaintainers.org/>
+ Co-Author, The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most <https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576816/the-innovation-delusion-by-lee-vinsel-and-andrew-l-russell/>
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