Secretary Anthony Foxx Voices Concern About Highway Bill’s Funding Levels

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Nov. 23 said proposed funding levels in a multiyear highway bill are not adequate to ensure the long-term stability of the country’s multimodal network.

“The funding levels still concern me, and they still should concern Congress,” Foxx said at the National Press Club. “Transportation is not an extravagance; it is an investment like paying for college or putting away retirement savings. … If investment levels are raised, they should be raised such that ordinary Americans feel the difference.”

The secretary called on lawmakers to take up the Obama administration’s six-year transportation plan, known as the Grow America Act. A portion of that plan would be financed with revenue from a one-time 14% tax on earnings that U.S. corporations have kept overseas.

Transportation policy leaders on Capitol Hill have yet to arrive at a topline for the highway reauthorizing legislation. The Senate-passed six-year, $325 billion authorization that would be backed by three years of funding is likely to change by the time the final bill is unveiled.

When federal lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., on Nov. 30 after the Thanksgiving break, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said he would unveil legislation that reconciles differences in highway bills advanced this year out of the House and Senate.