American Economy Depends on Long-Term Highway Law, Advocates Tell Panel
WASHINGTON — The American economy is depending on Congress to pass a long-term, financially stable transportation bill this year, business, labor, state and city officials said at the first in a series of hearings this year on how to pay for improvements to highways, ports and other infrastructure.
“America needs a multiyear surface transportation reauthorization so that we can begin to rebuild our infrastructure and get back on the road to competitiveness,” Stu Levenick, group president for customer and dealer support of Caterpillar Inc., told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at a Jan. 14 hearing.
“Congestion and capacity constraints are a significant concern with high levels of traffic in major metropolitan areas affecting trucker turn times and on-time performance,” he added.
“We need the stability of a long-term bill,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, told the committee. The bottom line is that the federal government must remove the instability surrounding transportation funding so that local governments can then decide where to invest their resources, the mayor said.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said her state is globally competitive thanks to the nation’s previous investments in roads, railroads, airports and waterways.
The next surface transportation authorization bill should have a particular focus on freight movement, said Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Shuster’s remarks came Jan. 14 at the beginning of his panel’s first hearing on a bill to replace MAP-21, which expires Sept. 30. A special panel of the committee, led by Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) issued a report last year calling for a national freight transportation plan.
“Chairman Duncan’s special panel on freight wrapped up its work in October,” Shuster said. “The panel has provided us with a lot of good recommendations that we need to take a hard look at.”
Shuster said he wants to have a new highway bill passed by the time MAP-21 expires. Before MAP-21, Congress passed extensions of the previous highway law for three years after it expired.
