NSSGA Podcast

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., likens America's need for diverse infrastructure funding to the need for a diverse retirement portfolio. "We, as a country, cannot continue to rely upon a very volatile source, and only one source, of revenue and that's the gas tax. Your listeners have 401Ks. Not any of them, I bet, invest in just one stock," he said.

Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., talks about the need be proactive with infrastructure investment and planning. Short-term planning contributed to creating one of the worst bottlenecks in the country in the 6th District of Louisiana; the Interstate 10 bridge over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.

Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., is the ranking member of the House T&I Committee. "Infrastructure is something that the government should do – and should do well," he says and elaborates on ways Congress can properly fund improvements to our infrastructure.

Also, learn hacks to get in touch with your member of Congress and bring them to a quarry this summer from members of NSSGA's government affairs team!

Congresswoman Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon is Puerto Rico's Republican delegate in Congress. She fought to be a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and talks about Puerto Rico's specific challenges and needs as it recovers from Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017.

Puerto Rico's infrastructure challenges are no different than those facing the rest of the United States, but being an island exponentially increases the difficulty of solving them.

Members of Congress and the Highway Materials Group held a press conference on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol that focused on the impact of a strong federal investment in our nation's infrastructure. Here are the remarks from Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., NSSGA Chairman Bob Weldon and other speakers from the HMG.

More than 300 people attended the 2019 Young Leaders Annual Meeting in Hilton Head, S.C. Four of NSSGA's Young Leaders discuss the best leadership advice they received and try to use in their careers: Aaron Ozinga, president of Ozinga Materials and Logistics; Brian Mahavier, vice president of business development at U.S. Concrete; Seth Hankowski, vice president of sales and supply at All States Materials Group; and Rick Everist, Midwest division vice president at L.G. Everist, Inc.

The second season of NSSGA's podcast begins with an interview from the 2019 Chairman, Bob Weldon. He talks about growing up in the aggregates industry and his goals for the association as it seizes an advocacy moment and creates a three-year strategic plan.

For decades, uncertainty surrounding the scope of federal authority over "waters of the U.S." (WOTUS) has resulted in regulatory uncertainty. Litigation over the broad and overreaching 2015 WOTUS rule has added to the confusion. The EPA and Army Corps recently proposed a new clean water rule that would provide clarity over federal jurisdiction. In this podcast, Emily Coyner, senior director of environmental policy at NSSGA, and Don Parrish, senior director of federal relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation and chairman of the Waters Advocacy Coalition, discuss the need for clean water and clear rules.