THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  I just had a meeting with Treasury¹ Secretary Tim Geithner, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, and governors like Ed Rendell, mayors like Antonio Villaraigosa, and economists² and engineers from across the country to discuss one of America’s greatest challenges: our crumbling³（破碎的） infrastructure⁴ and the urgent need to put Americans back to work upgrading it for the 21st century.

We’re also joined today by two former Transportation Secretaries of both political parties: Sam Skinner, who served under President George H.W. Bush; and Norm Mineta, who served in the Cabinets of both President Clinton and President George W. Bush.  They’re here today because they are passionate⁵（热情的） about this task.

Their cooperation –- and indeed, this country’s very history –- proves that this is something for which there has traditionally been broad bipartisan（两党连立的） support.  So Sam and Norm have been leading a bipartisan group of more than 80 experts who, just last week, released a call to action demanding a “fundamental overhaul” of how America approaches funding and building our infrastructure.  And today, my Treasury Department and my Council of Economic Advisors⁶ have released our own study.

And these reports confirm what any American can already tell you: our infrastructure is woefully（悲伤地，不幸地） inefficient⁷ and it is outdated⁸.  For years, we have deferred⁹（推迟，延期） tough decisions, and today, our aging system of highways and byways, air routes and rail lines hinder（阻碍，打扰） our economic growth.  Today, the average American household is forced to spend more on transportation each year than food.  Our roads, clogged¹⁰ with traffic, cost us $80 billion a year in lost productivity and wasted fuel.  Our airports, choked with passengers, cost nearly $10 billion a year in productivity losses from flight delays.  And in some cases, our crumbling infrastructure costs American lives.  It should not take another collapsing¹¹ bridge or failing levee（堤坝） to shock us into action.

So we’re already paying for our failure to act.  And what’s more, the longer our infrastructure erodes¹²（腐蚀，侵蚀） , the deeper our competitive edge erodes.  Other nations understand this.  They are going all-in.  Today, as a percentage of GDP, we invest less than half of what Russia does in their infrastructure, less than one-third of what Western Europe does.  Right now, China’s building hundreds of thousands of miles of new roads.  Over the next 10 years, it plans to build dozens of new airports.  Over the next 20, it could build as many as 170 new mass transit¹³ systems.  Everywhere else, they’re thinking big.  They’re creating jobs today, but they’re also playing to win tomorrow.  So the bottom line is our shortsightedness has come due.  We can no longer afford to sit still.

What we need is a smart system of infrastructure equal to the needs of the 21st century.  A system that encourages sustainable communities with easier access to our jobs, to our schools, to our homes.  A system that decreases travel time and increases mobility¹⁴.  A system that cuts congestion¹⁵（拥挤） and ups productivity.  A system that reduces harmful emissions¹⁶ over time and creates jobs right now.

So we’ve already begun on this task.  The Recovery Act included the most serious investment in our infrastructure since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s.  And we’re not just talking new and restored roads and bridges and dams and levees, but we’re also talking a smart electric grid¹⁷ and the high-speed internet and rail lines required for America to compete in the 21st century economy.  We’re talking about investments with impacts both immediate¹⁸ and lasting¹⁹.

Tens of thousands of projects employing hundreds of thousands of workers are already underway across America.  We’re improving 40,000 miles of road, and rebuilding water and sewer²⁰ systems（污水管道系统） .  We’re implementing²¹ a smarter, more stable, more secure electric grid across 46 states that will increase access to renewable sources of energy and cut costs for customers.  We’re moving forward with projects that connect communities across the country to broadband internet, and connect 31 states via a true high-speed rail network.  And what’s more, a great many of these projects are coming in under budget.