Transportation Coalition Says Next Highway Patch Should Include Funding Fix
The next highway funding extension Congress approves should require the tax-writing panels to come up with a plan that ensures long-term funding for highways and transit projects, the Transportation Construction Coalition said May 6.
“Due to uncertainty about future federal funds, states have already delayed more than $1 billion in planned transportation projects that would have been part of this construction season,” the coalition wrote in a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.
“It is time to end the dubious claims that tax reform and another extension provide a clear path toward a long-term Highway Trust Fund solution,” they added.
The group, with members such as the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and the American Society of Civil Engineers, is the latest stakeholder to press federal lawmakers to adopt a long-term funding fix for the trust fund. Federal transportation funding authority expires May 31, and Secretary Anthony Foxx indicated the trust fund is projected to be depleted by midsummer.
Thus far, the GOP chairmen of the House and Senate tax-writing panels have yet to unveil their short-term funding proposal.
