This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

When a major new law passes in Congress, it often is difficult to grasp what will happen in Oregon, if anything.

Well, this time around, with passage of the major infrastructure bill, there will be huge benefits for Oregon.  That is, benefits if you favor new roads, bridges, rail service, Internet connections, and other investments.

This week, colleagues in my old firm, now called CFM Advocates, wrote a blog listing benefits for Oregon.  Rather than set out to write something myself, I choose to reprint excerpts from what CFM wrote.  [I add that the Congressional bill includes allocation for “climate change” and for bringing Internet connections to households not yet connected.  It’s too early to suggest if and, if so how, such allocations would affect Oregon.]

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$3.4 billion highway formula funding would mainly come through these programs: 

+  National Highway Performance Program is the largest of the federal-aid highway programs.  It supports improvement of the condition and performance of the National Highway System, which includes Interstate System highways and bridges, as well as virtually all other major highways.

+  Surface Transportation Block Grant Program is the federal-aid highway program with the broadest eligibility criteria.  Funds can be used on any federal-aid highway, on bridge projects on any public road, on transit capital projects, on routes for non-motorized transportation, on bridge and tunnel inspection. 

+  Highway Safety Improvement Program supports projects that improve the safety of road infrastructure by correcting hazardous road locations, such as dangerous intersections, or making road improvements, such as adding striping.

+  Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program was established to fund projects and programs that may reduce emissions of transportation-related pollutants. 

+  National Highway Freight Program helps states remove impediments to the movement of goods.  Section 1116 requires the feds to establish the National Highway Freight Network, which is made up of the primary highway freight system, critical rural freight corridors, critical urban freight corridors ,and any Interstate System highways not so designated. 

The $268 million for bridge replacement and repair would come through the following: 

+  Bridge Formula Program – The bill appropriates $27.5 billion for a new bridge formula program to provide funding to Statesand Tribal governments to repair and rebuild bridges in poor condition.  

The $747 million in public transportation dollars would mainly come through these programs: 

+  Urbanized Area Formula Program provides funding for public transportation in urbanized areas.

+  State of Good Repair Grant Program provides funding primarily for repairing and upgrading rail transit systems, but also other fixed-guideway systems (such as passenger ferries and bus rapid transit) ,and bus systems that use high-occupancy-vehicle lanes. 

+  Rural Area Formula Program provides funding to states and Indian tribes for public transportation outside of urbanized areas. 

+  Bus and Bus Facilities Grant Program provides funding for capital expenses to purchase and rehabilitate buses and to construct bus-related facilities, such as maintenance depots.  

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You get the picture.

As I said earlier, there is a lot to like in the new bill if you favor improvements to roads, bridges, and rail.

Plus, an added benefit is a lot of new construction jobs in Oregon that come along with the investments, which makes the new bill a boon for the country.

Two additional thoughts crossed my mind as I read my colleagues’ blog”

• Will there be enough money to fund the proposed new bridge between Portland and Vancouver, Washington?  Not clear, but parties on both sides of the river appear to have been moving toward agreement on the design of a new bridge.  Thus, possible funding.

• Will there be enough money to fund the needed third bridge from Salem to West Salem and Polk County?  It would be a welcome development if such money could be found for the new bridge, but, first, that would require political leaders in the region to do what they have not done so far – which is to establish a site for and design of a new bridge.  Thus, probably a long shot for funding.