For years, “infrastructure week” was a kind of running joke in Washington — a stand-in for all of the boring but popular rebuilding work that could happen if Donald Trump ever decided to get serious. Under Joe Biden, this idea has become something more tangible: the trillion-dollar American Jobs Plan, which lays out investments in everything from bridges to broadband.
But while Congress grinds away on the details, we still want to think bigger. The pandemic showed just how shaky America’s foundation really is, whether it’s having enough hospital beds to survive a pandemic or having a connection fast enough to support a Zoom call. Fixing our infrastructure means looking at all of that — even the stuff like power grids and credit systems that only get noticed when they break. It also means building out infrastructure for the next generation of technology, whether it’s satellite internet uplinks or a nationwide EV charging network. If we’re going to live in the future, we need to take a close look at the infrastructure we’ll need to get there.
So starting today, we’re doing just that. All week, we’ll be running down the hidden structures that make our world work — in interviews, on video, and even in a live event focusing on how we can build a better internet.
Welcome to Infrastructure Week. It’s been a long time coming.
