America’s infrastructure is reaching a breaking point — a challenge we can no longer avoid. As a country of more than 330 million Americans, we are dependent on the roads, bridges, tunnels, waterways, ports, airports, cities and telecommunications that hold us together. We need a bipartisan solution that keeps us the most competitive country in the world while not breaking our nation’s fiscal health, which is already strained by deficit spending.

Nebraskans rely on dependable infrastructure to support our agricultural, health care and business communities. As one of the 58 members on the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, we are working feverishly to find consensus and tackle a huge priority for our country. The $1.9 trillion COVID bill passed by party line vote with zero bipartisanship in February, while there was $1 trillion in unspent money from previous COVID bills, made finding a bipartisan agreement even more challenging. But we are making progress in the Problem Solvers Caucus.

Any infrastructure plan is going to cost money. But a decrepit infrastructure also costs us money when safety standards are undermined and when we lose in the global trade competition. But, spending too much undermines our nation’s fiscal stability. We must find the right balance.