Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) embarked on a 10-day multi-city bus tour to visit equipment dealers across the Midwest, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains and the West. Stops also included two in Illinois and one in St. Louis. The purpose of the tour is to highlight the critical need for federal infrastructure legislation.

"A new, long-term, sustainable federal infrastructure bill is critical to moving our nation forward," stated AED President & CEO Brian P. McGuire. "Infrastructure jobs will go a long way toward economic recovery as we hopefully begin to move past the pandemic."

AED leadership is meeting with key equipment dealers across eight states. "We want to hear first-hand the impact an infrastructure bill will have on our members," said AED Executive Vice President Robert Henderson. "We will use the data and anecdotes we collect to demonstrate this critical need to the U.S Congress as they consider legislation to replace the Fast Act, which expires on September 30."

Concurrently, AED is engaged in an unprecedented grassroots outreach campaign to U.S. Senators. To date, 75 percent of AED members have generated more than 800 letters to their U.S. Senators.