DOT chief launching bus tour to push for highway bill

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is launching a bus tour to push Congress to approve a bill to boost U.S. infrastructure funding. 

Foxx is planning to make stops in five states and Washington, D.C., to press lawmakers to approve proposed legislation that would spend $478 billion on road and transit projects over the next six years.

Foxx said Thursday he is hitting the road to highlight infrastructure improvements that require lawmakers to approve a long-term transportation funding bill.  

{mosads}“Congress continues to pass short-term measures with flat funding that falls short of meeting our country’s needs,” Foxx said in a statement. “I am once again taking my message directly to the American people because they know that Band-Aid funding measures don’t build bridges; they don’t create jobs; and they don’t help us compete in the 21st Century. We need to put our country back to work with a long-term funding plan.”

The measure Foxx is touting, which has been dubbed the Grow America Act, is intended to prevent a bankruptcy in federal transportation funding that is currently scheduled to occur in May without congressional action. 

Congress has approved a series of temporary infrastructure funding patches since a 2005 transportation bill expired in 2009, including an $11 billion measure scheduled to expire in May. 

The Transportation chief pleaded with Congress for a much longer extension during a visit to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. 

“Our country is too great to allow our infrastructure to fall apart,” Foxx said during a House Transportation Committee hearing. 

“At a time when we should be building more, we’re building less,” he continued. “Instead of saying ‘build, build, build,’ Congress has been saying ‘stop.’ ” 

The Department of Transportation has said its Highway Trust Fund will run out of money on May 31, barring congressional intervention. The fund, which is used to pay for most infrastructure projects, is funded by revenue from the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax. 

The gas tax has not been increased since 1993 and has struggled to keep pace with rising construction costs, as cars have become more fuel-efficient. 

Foxx is scheduled to travel to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia to make the case for a new transportation funding bill. 

Foxx’s trip will include “visits to universities, manufacturers, bridges, freight facilities, and highway projects in an effort to raise awareness of America’s infrastructure deficit. 

“Secretary Foxx will visit with students, business leaders, transportation stakeholders, and community residents, to discuss the projects that work, projects that are needed, and to ask them to commit to standing up for a future with an American transportation system that is second-to-none,” the agency said. 

— This story was updated with new information 11:42 p.m.