Revitalizing Communities and Infrastructure

No matter where you live, your family deserves the freedom and opportunity to thrive. To achieve this goal, we need: new regional transportation solutions, like roads, bridges and railways; affordable housing; high-speed internet that better connects our communities to marketplaces; and smarter infrastructure that can withstand the growing threat of natural disasters.

We know from looking at other booming areas, infrastructure development is one of the biggest challenges to maintaining growth and that challenge is compounded by extreme weather events like flooding. Government and business both have a role to play in creating the conditions that allow working families, small business owners and family farms the continued freedom to thrive.

I was proud to support state investments in clean energy jobs, but we must do more to spur innovation, create good-paying, sustainable jobs and be good stewards of land and water. And it’s urgent: Lives, businesses, schools and infrastructure are being lost all across the state due to the increasing frequency of billion-dollar, climate-enhanced natural disasters like flooding. 

As a small town mayor, I was a member of the Greater Nashville Regional Council’s Mayor Caucus where we worked on long-term plans for smart growth, resilient infrastructure, managing municipal waste, and developing our home care workforce. As a Tennessee senator, I sponsored a law to study passenger rail service in the state.

By working together, we can invest in infrastructure upgrades that make our communities healthier, improve our commute to work, increase time with our families and make business more predictable.