DOT chief: Highway patch would ‘prolong a dangerous status quo’

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said a temporary extension of federal highway funding that is scheduled to expire on May 31 will “prolong a dangerous status quo” of underfunding U.S. roads and transit systems. 

The current transportation funding measure is scheduled to expire on May 31, and lawmakers are struggling to come up with a way to pay for an extension. 

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a blog post on the transportation department’s website that he is not optimistic they will come up with anything more than a temporary patch. 

{mosads}“It’s happening again.  The May 31 expiration date for federal transportation funding is fast approaching,” he wrote. 

“Maybe Congress will act in time,” he continued. “But at best, they’re likely to pass another short-term extension, the 33rd such patch in the past 6 years.  And at best, they’ll prolong a dangerous status quo of funding infrastructure at a level that has left our transportation system gasping for air.” 

Foxx has said previously that his agency has enough money to cover existing projects until the end of summer, but he said this week that the federal government will have to stop authorizing new construction spending unless if Congress allows the law that authorizes the federal government’s infrastructure spending to expire.  

“States will not be reimbursed for construction costs,” he wrote in the blog post. “They will not receive technical support.  And, as construction season begins after a long winter, projects will grind to a halt.” 

The transportation funding debate has loomed large in Washington as the deadline draws closer without the introduction of legislation to prevent an interruption in the infrastructure spending. 

The expiring measure is itself an extension of a 2012 transportation bill that was supposed to last until September 2014. That measure was a $109 billion bill that was supposed to cover two years’ worth of transportation projects, but it was extended for eight months by lawmakers last summer. 

Lawmakers in both parties have expressed a desire to pass a new transportation funding bill now that the bill is coming due again, but consensus on how to pay for it has been elusive. 

The traditional source of transportation funding has been revenue from the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gas tax. The tax has not been increased since 1993, however, and has struggled to keep pace with construction costs as U.S. cars have become more fuel efficient. 

The federal government typically spends about $50 billion per year on transportation projects, but the gas tax only brings in about $34 billion annually at its current rate. Lawmakers have turned to other areas of the federal budget in recent years to close the gap, but transportation advocates have complained the resulting temporary patches are preventing states from undertaking badly needed large construction projects. 

Transportation advocates have pushed Congress to increase the tax for the first time in two decades to pay for a long-term infrastructure funding extension, but lawmakers have been reluctant to ask drivers to pay more at the pump. 

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has suggested that lawmakers approve a six-year, $478 billion transportation funding bill that it says can be paid for largely with taxes that could be collected on corporate profits that are stored overseas. 

Republicans have said they are open to the idea, known as repatriation, but the parties have squabbled about the rate of the corporate taxes and whether the charges should be mandatory or voluntary. 

Foxx said in his blog post that the Obama administration’s plan would end the streak of short-term infrastructure funding bills in Washington that has lasted for the better part of a decade. 

“The fact is, we have already proposed an alternative to the funding shortage,” he wrote.  “It’s the 6-year GROW AMERICA Act, and it packs a powerful one-two punch of funding certainty and a 45-percent boost in overall transportation investment.  The proposal we sent Congress back in March would increase funding for roads, highways, and transit systems.  And for the first time, it would provide dedicated funding for passenger rail, rail safety, and a national freight program.” 

Foxx chided Republican critics who have ignored Obama’s infrastructure funding proposal. 

“When you’ve seen 32-short term measures in six years, any funding bill that is actually big enough to meet the country’s challenges will be labeled by some as unrealistic,” he wrote.  “But it’s also unrealistic to think that if we continue underinvesting in infrastructure, we’ll be able to meet the needs of 70 million more people in 30 years.  We are in a big ditch; we need a big solution. GROW AMERICA is that solution.

“Now, we’re willing to listen to other solutions, too,” Foxx continued. “But you can’t kick the can a few inches down a 10-mile road and call that a solution– even if you kick it 32 times.”