WSTA’s Hicks Calls on Congress to Pass Long-Term Highway Bill

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — At his group’s fall meeting, Western States Transportation Alliance Executive Director R.J. Hicks called on federal lawmakers to pass a long-term highway bill that gives states better financial guidance for planning infrastructure projects.

“We can’t live with resolutions from six months or whatever. State DOTs have to be able to look long term and say, ‘We’re going to plan for projects and do whatever long term.’ And they have to have that ability,” Hicks said at the group’s issues summit here.

Nearly every major trucking organization and transportation stakeholders have been urging Congress to approve a multiyear transportation bill.

MAP-21, a highway funding law, expires at the end of May, giving transportation leaders a few months to strike a legislative deal. MAP-21 was set to expire in September, but Congress voted to extend its authority through the spring of 2015. Lawmakers have consistently extended highway funding authority in recent years.

But after the November midterm elections, Republican leaders have been sounding optimistic about the chances of advancing an infrastructure funding agreement in the 114th Congress that convenes in January. That legislation would aim to provide a sustainable funding source for the federal Highway Trust Fund. The trust fund account is used by the Department of Transportation to help states pay for infrastructure projects.

Yet, while Republicans and Democrats say repeatedly they support modernizing the country’s aging infrastructure, they often disagree over which sources of funding to tap.