Congressman George Whitesides Launches Build America Caucus, Highlights Need for Outcome over Process
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman George Whitesides joined his colleagues to launch the bipartisan “Build America Caucus,” a group of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle dedicated to tackling some of the largest problems of today, including housing, infrastructure, and energy.
“I came to Congress to solve problems, and I’m ready to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get stuff done,” said Rep George Whitesides (CA-27). “We need to move from a focus on process to a focus on outcomes – how much housing are we building, how many roads are we fixing, how much clean energy infrastructure are we creating, how many rural homes are we connecting to broadband, how many acres of forest are we treating for wildfire risk? It is the outcomes that will dictate whether we are really creating positive impacts for our constituents, and I’m ready to make some progress!”
This group of bipartisan lawmakers believe that onerous regulations and procedural rules have held up the ability to build what America needs:
- It costs 4x more to build affordable housing in California than market-rate housing in Texas, and takes 22 months longer.
- Red tape is hobbling infrastructure construction. 1 in 4 projects are stuck in paperwork for over 6 years before the first shovel hits dirt.
- Energy projects are stuck in line, and the line is getting longer. A typical project built in 2023 spends 5 years in the interconnection queue, compared to less than 2 years in 2008.
- The cost of building a mile of highway has tripled over the last 50 years, after inflation.
- Researchers report spending almost half their time on bureaucratic paperwork, killing innovative research capacity.
- Construction productivity has actually decreased since 1950. In contrast, manufacturing has increased productivity by over 8x.
The Build America Caucus will focus on cutting through bureaucratic red tape to tackle the core elements of American life, to make them more affordable and accessible to those who need better housing, infrastructure, and energy outcomes.
The members of the Build America Caucus are: Reps. Jake Auchincloss, Gus Bilirakis, Rob Bresnahan, Nikki Budzinski, Janelle Bynum, Sharice Davids, Chuck Edwards, Laura Friedman, Adam Gray, Josh Harder, Jim Himes, Jeff Hurd, Jen Kiggans, Seth Magaziner, Nicole Malliotakis, Celeste Maloy, Mike McCaul, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Joe Neguse, Dan Newhouse, Jay Obernolte, Scott Peters, Brittany Pettersen, Pat Ryan, Andrea Salinas, Haley Stevens, Ritchie Torres, David Valadao, and George Whitesides.
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