Anthony Foxx Asks Congress to Pass ‘New and Improved’ Funding Plan
This story appears in the Feb. 16 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx urged a House panel to adopt the White House’s “new and improved” transportation funding plan to avoid a potential slowdown of critical state-level infrastructure projects.
The six-year, $478 billion proposal that would boost capacity along roadways to reduce freight bottlenecks will be formally unveiled in the coming weeks, Foxx said at a hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 11.
The plan would be financed with revenue from a one-time 14% tax on earnings that U.S. corporations have kept overseas, a funding setup revealed in the fiscal 2016 budget the White House sent to Congress earlier this month.
Federal funding authority for transportation projects runs out at the end of May, and Republican leaders in Congress have yet to say whether they will back the administration’s plan or unveil their own approach. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx interview with Transport TopicsDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx speaks with Transport Topics about the department's efforts to persuade Congress to make a long-term commitment toward improving the nation's transportation infrastructure. Time to 'break the mold'DOT Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx says it's time for a new approach toward solving the nation's transportation woes.
“After May, we will be watching very carefully the fund balance in the Highway Trust Fund. We expect that at current spending levels we’ll likely have to notify states in the June timeline of our cash-management measures, and I would expect that our cash-management measures will mimic what we were proposing last time,” Foxx told the committee.
“I do think [states] are all scanning their programs of work to figure out what they’re going to do. Frankly from their standpoint, May is actually late in the game. So they’ll have to make a decision before May,” he added.
There’s broad agreement among lawmakers that a multiyear highway bill is needed to ensure economic stability, and a small bipartisan group of members has proposed raising fuel taxes to fund the highway system. A fuel-tax hike has not been endorsed by a majority of lawmakers, despite strong support from many transportation groups. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx interview with Transport TopicsDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx tells Transport Topics that relieving congestion on freight corridors is a top priority.DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx's interview with Transport TopicsDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx talks about the critical need to relieve congestion along freight corridors.
The House panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, asked Foxx if the White House would sign off on increasing fuel taxes.
“We very openly said to Congress that if there are other ideas that emerge, we are willing to hear those ideas and consider them,” Foxx responded. “We haven’t taken any other pay-for off the table, and to my knowledge we will not.”
Since 2008, Congress has transferred more than $50 billion to the Highway Trust Fund from the general fund. Lawmakers have not approved increasing the 24.4-cents-per-gallon tax on diesel and the 18.4-cent tax on gasoline since 1993.
Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) emphasized the need to adopt provisions that streamline the approval of construction projects and improve freight connectivity.
“As I travel the country time and time again, you see these projects that take so long,” Shuster said.
Foxx told the chairman the new “Grow America Act” contains provisions to streamline the permitting process for big-ticket projects and includes $18 billion over six years to maximize freight capacity around key commercial areas, such as ports and oil fields.
Echoing the secretary’s comments on freight, Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) unveiled legislation that would establish a funding program for freight transportation. It would use 5% revenue from import fees to upgrade infrastructure. DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx interview with Transport TopicsDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx talks about the challenge of coordinating infrastructure improvements when agencies are involved at the local, state and federal level.DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx interview with Transport TopicsDOT Secretary Anthony Foxx describes the challenge of working with local, state and federal agencies in trying to solve the nation's infrastructure problems.
Specific to trucking, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) pressed Foxx about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s move to name Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute the organization responsible for studying the safety claims of the hours-of-service restart changes that were suspended last year.
FMCSA awarded the school a contract to the study the rule’s effects prior to its 2013 implementation.
“We are asking only that the study is done thoroughly, done intelligently and done based on the things that you just spoke about, knowing that the trucking industry is fundamentally happy with the rules that they have and the industry’s record of safety has increased year in and year out,” Hanna said.
Foxx again defended both the safety benefits of the HOS rule as well as the decision to use Virginia Tech for the study.
A fiscal 2015 funding bill signed into law in December included a provision calling for the suspension of an FMCSA requirement that drivers seeking to restart their weekly clocks take off two consecutive periods of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. The rule’s suspension is scheduled to end when the law expires Sept. 30.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, ranking member of the Highways and Transit subcommittee, told the secretary she took comfort in knowing the department was working on entry-level driver training standards, which could be issued this fall.
“Most of our trucks are really small businesses. And there’s been no standard driver training. To their credit they desire to have a standard curriculum. This issue is more than 20 years old,” Norton said.
