BY CURTIS TATE
WASHINGTON — States are scanning their lists of highway and bridge projects to see which ones they can live without amid uncertainty over federal funding, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told lawmakers Wednesday.
Legislation authorizing the federal Highway Trust Fund is set to expire at the end of May – the traditional start of the construction season – just as states are getting highway projects in full swing. Foxx warned members of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that without a new bill, the department would have to start rationing payments to states this summer.
“At a time when we need to be building more, we’re building less,” Foxx testified. “We need to do something.”
How to pay for the country’s infrastructure needs is the big sticking point. Otherwise, the issue enjoys broad bipartisan support.
In the three-hour hearing, which was well-attended by lawmakers, Foxx promoted the Obama administration’s six-year, $478 billion transportation authorization proposal.
He signaled a willingness to cut red tape on project reviews, promised to empower local leaders on transportation decision-making, stressed the importance of alleviating freight bottlenecks and defended the role of transit in reducing highway congestion for people and goods.
The country’s infrastructure backlog was dramatically underscored Tuesday, when a chunk of concrete fell from the Capital Beltway in Maryland onto a car passing on a road below. The driver wasn’t hurt.
“There’s no excuse for that in this country,” Foxx said.
For the most part, Foxx received a friendly reception from the committee’s members, some of whom are former mayors like Foxx, who was mayor of Charlotte, N.C., before he came to the Transportation Department in 2013.
But some sounded skeptical of the White House plan. It relies on one-time revenues generated from taxing overseas corporate profits to shore up the highway fund. But it’s not a permanent solution.
“You may not be here in 2021, but some of us will be,” noted Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash. A bridge on Interstate 5 in his district partially collapsed in 2012 and was repaired with emergency funds.
While Foxx agreed that “there is a question mark” at the end of the six years, he stressed the importance of an immediate fix. The highway fund has fallen short every year since 2008 and has required infusions of general revenues to maintain spending levels.
Foxx noted that the 32 short-term transportation measures Congress has enacted since 2009 have given the states little of the certainty they need.
“We think it’s important to get something done now,” he said.
But Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, a former chairman of the committee, cast doubt on either the use of general revenues or overseas corporate profits to fill the hole. Instead, he pushed for a more traditional funding method favored by business groups.
“Let the public pay for it,” Young said. “The truckers buy it.”
The trucking industry, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and road builders support raising the federal gasoline tax, which has stayed the same since 1993 and has lost much of its buying power. The idea has gained traction among some lawmakers in both parties on both sides of the Capitol.
Although gasoline prices have been trending lower recently, a tax increase would be a hard sell in Congress. President Barack Obama has been lukewarm to it at best.
“Even a number of conservatives want to make sure we have a long-term funding strategy,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., referencing conversations with his constituents.
Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., noted that 285 members, or two-thirds of the House, support a six-year authorization bill.
“I think that’s good news,” he said. “We need to bring the American people along with us.”
