ATA Presses Obama on Long-Term Funding for Roads, Bridges

Trucking industry leaders have called on the Obama administration to unveil a transportation plan that focuses on long-term, user-fee solutions for the Highway Trust Fund, not quick fixes.

White House officials have said President Obama will unveil a transportation funding plan this month or early in May.

“If reports are correct that the administration’s plan will center on proceeds from the unlikely passage of corporate tax reform and increased use of inefficient tolling and private-finance options, then this proposal will be a tremendous missed opportunity,” American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said.

“A strong, well-funded federal highway program is critical to our nation’s economic success, and another round of Band-Aids and hollow promises won’t get it done,” Graves said in an April 28 statement.

ATA has said the 24.4-cent diesel tax and the 18.4-cent gasoline tax should be raised and the levies indexed to inflation. The fuel tax has not been raised in over 20 years.

ATA also has pressed for increased focus on freight and supply chain issues.

“It is critical that the administration’s funding blueprint puts resources where they can do the most good,” said ATA Chairman Philip Byrd Sr., president of Bulldog Hiway Express in Charleston, South Carolina.

“The administration should carve out a program to fund the needs of freight transportation that focuses on the mode that moves the most goods: trucks,” Byrd said.

“This administration needs to make much-needed investments in repairing our existing roads and bridges,” he added, “and looking for ways to add capacity to meet our growing needs.”