The BIMA Summer Sizzler is the must-attend networking event for marketing and media professionals.
08/11/2022
5:30pm - 8:30pm
Museum of Science
The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
This is an opportunity to meet the Chamber staff as you learn how to leverage your Chamber benefits effectively to meet your goals through our offerings.
09/29/2022
2:00pm - 3:30pm
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
We are now recruiting for our 2022 fall DEI cohort! We hope you’ll join us in our mission to increase DEI fluency and change in the Boston business community – starting with you.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Economic Inclusion Committee provides strategic support around research, policies, and programs that are focused on building equal opportunity.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For more than 25 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
Through MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange), we’re building valuable connections between the people and ideas behind technology and its impact on the future of customer experiences, all to create a community that’s finding tomorrow’s solutions together.
We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
On May 13, 2021, the Chamber distributed testimony to each member of the Massachusetts delegation regarding the U.S. Infrastructure plan, the various proposals in play, and clearly explains the importance of bipartisan consensus on infrastructure investments.
Bold thinking and collaboration hinges on bipartisan leadership to shape how Congress will fund and define an infrastructure package. Several major proposals are in play. The American Jobs Plan is expansive while the Senate Republican proposal is a scaled down investment. The Problem Solvers Caucus’s plan emphasizes traditional infrastructure and includes funding through user fees.
With each proposal under consideration, we urge Congress and President Biden to demonstrate collaborative leadership and accomplish a bipartisan compromise on both the scope and the funding of an infrastructure plan. Proposals that are unrelated to and distract from infrastructure discussions – like expanding access to long-term care under Medicaid – however worthy, should not delay action on the investments Americans need.
Funding for an infrastructure plan, particularly transportation infrastructure, should be built on the link between funding sources and uses. For transportation funding, it is time to raise the federal gas tax. Second, because climate reduction goals will lead to a decline in gas tax revenues over time, there should be new or increased fees that will withstand the shift away from gasoline consumption. Electric vehicle fees and pilot programs for vehicle miles traveled proposed by the Problem Solvers Caucus are the right approach.
Congress has an opportunity not just to invest in infrastructure; it has an opportunity to begin to unify a country that has been polarized for too long. Infrastructure affects peoples’ daily lives all over this country and drives the economy. The impact of improvements is tangible.
The need for infrastructure investment is undeniable. The most recent Infrastructure Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers rates national infrastructure a C-, and notes that 43 percent of public roadways in the US are in poor or mediocre condition. The same study rates transit infrastructure a D-, bridge infrastructure a C, and energy infrastructure a C-.[1]
Massachusetts itself needs infrastructure investment, particularly on transportation to improve conditions for drivers and riders.
The Chamber’s transportation policy agenda outlines additional major projects in various stages of implementation that would support economic growth and improve quality of life in Massachusetts. This includes the MBTA’s Red-Blue Connector, East-West Commuter Rail, the I-495-I-90 interchange, and Cape Cod bridges. The cost of these projects is tens of billions and does not include the investments needed to electrify regional transit systems to reduce emissions. Similarly, investments in the electric grid are vital for Massachusetts; our economic growth will be closely tied to the strength and durability of our electric grid because of the state’s recently enacted climate law and the coming shift to electrification.
Infrastructure investments, particularly on transportation projects, have clear economic benefits. They quickly create good jobs and launch careers in construction, maintenance, design, and other fields directly involved in the infrastructure projects. Infrastructure investments strengthen our economic recovery and growth by creating connectivity and a transportation system that safely and reliably supports the movement of goods and people.
[1] https://infrastructurereportcard.org/
[2] Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database, Safety & Security Major-Only Time Series Data, December 2020.
Carolyn Ryan
Senior Vice President, Policy & Research
policy@bostonchamber.com617-557-7310
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