The 1990 - 91 Congressional Hearings on America's Infrastructure

This study focuses on the condition of the American material infrastructure which had deteriorated sharply in the 1980s. To find what caused the deterioration in the condition of the U. S. public capital stock, the Committee on Public Works and Transportation of the House of Representatives held lengthy hearings in 1990 and 1991 at various locations throughout our far-flung land. This committee had 57 members and was responsible for all types of transportation programs, water resources, etc. Traffic congestion was increasing rapidly, and the country was facing mounting water and wastewater problems. It took more than one year to review the presented testimonies and supporting documents, collate the evidence, and write the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. It was passed at the end of 1991 and its price tag was $ 151 billion. This study has examined the 3,000 pages of testimony from those hearings to acquire a sense of the infrastructure conditions as well as the “spirit of the times” prevailing then in the U. S.