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Both political parties in Congress and the Biden administration must not escape criticism over their inability to cooperate, compromise and end the uncertainties -- expeditiously -- regarding the proposed massive, needed national infrastructure initiative.
Shame on them all for the political obstructionism, grandstanding and outright irresponsibility that have kept the trillions-of-dollars program in limbo for so long.
As Mirror reporter William Kibler detailed in a front-page article in Thursday's Mirror, Pennsylvania alone is targeted to receive $3.9 billion for transportation under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act pending under Washington's Capitol dome.
The nation's other 49 states are in line to receive a similar transportation funding "jolt," the word this newspaper chose to help call attention to the scope of what is at stake regarding the passage of IIJA.
Blair County, one of the six counties of what is dubbed the Southern Alleghenies region, is in line to receive between $3.5 million and $5.5 million annually over five years under the proposed federal measure.
For the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, on the verge of a serious transportation money shortage starting in mid-2022, the proposed federal bill constitutes a strong potential "pain reliever" -- if Washington can get its act together.
Meanwhile, the initiative being promoted would provide a general economic boost, in addition to being a bricks-and-mortar, asphalt-and-concrete, sanitary sewer-and-storm sewer and employment godsend.
At the same time, there could be many other benefits -- direct benefits, and not-directly associated side benefits -- spinning off from the legislative program's core elements.
All of that then is part of what is at stake. It is imperative that IIJA pass sooner rather than later, even with some hundreds of billions of dollars shaved off of what the Biden administration is seeking.
And Congress would bolster its public image if the passage came with some bipartisan support, even if not with unanimous bipartisan accord.
For now, though, both major parties in the U.S. House and Senate, as well as the Biden White House, must share the blame for the uncertainties that have been ongoing and for being party to the otherwise unflattering, stubborn attitudes that have prevented the 2021 construction season from having achieved its full potential.
By lack of "full potential" is meant the inability of state officials to begin planning fully for 2022 and beyond with reasonable certainty that projects and plans they develop -- through not-a-cheap process -- will receive the federal financial backing that the infrastructure measure portends to provide.
The bottom line: Much of what already could have been accomplished this year from the standpoint of gearing up for full-speed-ahead next year has been forced to mark time amid the nothingness of months of legislative limbo.
Said another way, the full breadth of the 2022 planning and construction season has been held hostage and, in some ways, jeopardized at the same time -- to the detriment of the Southern Alleghenies region and every other region of this country, because of the entrenched madness of ineffectiveness that has been displayed regarding this legislation for so long.
The U.S. Government never should open itself to such a failing "report card."