Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the Bush administration’s plan to encourage more local and private involvement in transportation funding hinges on support from business leaders and state officials, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Peters was on the on the third day of a five-city tour to seek support for the administration’s proposal, visited the mayor and senior corporate managers in Houston and the St. Louis County executive in Missouri yesterday, Bloomberg said.
Peters late last month unveiled the Bush administration’s final major surface transportation policy initiative — a reform of the highway program that includes unlimited tolling and an increased emphasis on private capital.
She asked Congress to cut earmarked transportation spending and bring more private-sector money to infrastructure projects, opposed by U.S. House Democratic transportation leaders, Bloomberg reported.
The effort comes as concern mounts over how to fund the nation's aging road and transit network ahead of the current highway bill’s expiration in 2009, Bloomberg said.
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