Shoring up Communities

The Pew Charitable Trusts hosted a May 23 discussion on the challenges facing our country’s infrastructure and approaches to safeguarding it from the effects of severe weather. It centered on ways the Trump administration and Congress can help the United States withstand natural disasters by modernizing infrastructure through smart policy, solid funding, and incorporation of nature-based solutions. Leading mayors shared their perspectives on how the country can finance innovative infrastructure projects that boost global competitiveness and save taxpayer dollars.

Governors Bridge Road in Bowie, MD, floods as a massive storm drops heavy rain on the region in April 2014.

© The Washington Post

Fireside Chat:

• Christopher Flavelle
  Bloomberg News reporter, moderator
• Joseph P. Riley
  Former Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina
  Pew Distinguished Fellow
• Jim Brainard
  Mayor of Carmel, Indiana

Introductions

• Tamera Luzzatto 
  Senior Vice President
  The Pew Charitable Trusts

Policy panel participants:

• Harriet Tregoning, former principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Charles Brittingham, senior vice president of Cassidy Associates and former policy adviser to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
• Laurens van der Tak, vice president of water resources and ecosystem management at engineering firm CH2M Hill
• Laura Lightbody, Pew’s project director of the flood-prepared communities initiative (moderator)