The Lowcountry of today would be almost unrecognizable to our parents and grandparents. Thanks to the hard work of countless entrepreneurs and workers, we’ve become a world leader in everything from manufacturing to tourism and hospitality.

Let us not forget, infrastructure is the backbone of our South Carolina economy. A total of 6,303 companies exported from South Carolina locations in 2016. And of those, 84 percent were small and medium sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees.

But, we can’t take success for granted. Our roads, bridges, airports, ports, and waterways are all vital to our state’s economy. Without flowing highways, tourists can’t make it to the coast. Without the Port of Charleston, the hard work of countless entrepreneurs and workers never reaches global markets. And not only that, port operations support 1 in 10 jobs for South Carolinians and account for 10% of the state’s economy. That’s $1.1 billion in tax revenue annually for South Carolina.

But this isn’t just about money. Failure here translates into real impacts on real families. Schools, police, firefighters, and countless other services we all rely on degrade if our economy stagnates, and that hurts the least fortunate among us.

It’s why I’m determined to work toward making infrastructure among Washington’s top priorities here in Congress.