ATA Forms Committee to Explore Highway Funding Options

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A special committee of top motor carrier executives will meet in Dallas in late March to discuss fundraising mechanisms other than a fuel-tax increase to pay for the next highway bill, American Trucking Associations Chairman Philip Byrd Sr. announced March 11.

 “We’ve assembled a committee of high-ranking officials in our industry to look at this highway funding problem that we have,” Byrd told a group of industry executives attending the Technology & Maintenance Council meeting here. “That committee will be chaired by former ATA Chairman Dan England.”

Byrd’s announcement comes only a few weeks after the House Transportation Committee chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.),  said he opposes an increase in the fuel tax, which funds highways and helps subsidize public transit. ATA wants Congress to increase the tax.

Shuster’s committee is set to write a new transportation funding bill this year.

The current transportation law expires Sept. 30. The fuel tax generates about $38 million annually, which has not covered transportation spending for years, so Congress has been making transfers from the general fund to the highway fund.

“Chairman Schuster says that he’s not in favor of passing a federal motor fuel-tax increase at this time,” Byrd said in an interview after his speech kicking off TMC’s annual conference.  “So we have to come together, get the brightest minds in the industry together on some options.”

The committee, which will include executives from a diverse group of ATA motor carriers, will meet March 22 in Dallas, a day before the Truckload Carriers Association begins its annual conference in nearby Grapevine.

“We have to get our highways up to speed, and quickly,” Byrd said.