Logistics News: Truckers urge “Eisenhower-like commitment” in highway bill funding
John D. Schulz, Contributing Editor -- Logistics Management, 5/1/2009
WASHINGTON — It’s the Super Bowl for highway and transportation lobbyists.
The current five-year highway trust fund (HTF) reauthorization act expires in September, and there’s talk of nearly doubling the spending of the current five-year, $286 billion bill. That’s money that would go a long way to easing freight bottlenecks, reducing congestion and improving the nation’s competitiveness.
The American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recently told Congress that the nation needs to spend $535 billion over the next six years to adequately meet the nation’s highway and transit needs.
So what does the trucking and highway lobby want with all that money?
In general, what freight interests want are congestion relief, economic growth, improved safety, and better bridge and pavement conditions. And the American people agree.
A new poll by Fabrizio McLaughlin & Associates Research shows that 88 percent of Americans are concerned about congestion and that 72 percent believe the federal government should lead in funding of major highways and bridges.
“Finding the political will, the political energy, and the financial resources to address the significant shortcomings in the nation’s infrastructure is going to be tough,” said American Trucking Association’s (ATA) President and CEO Bill Graves. “Years and years of doing just enough to get by have produced dire consequences.”
Graves told LM that the way forward is clear. “We need an Eisenhower-like commitment to renewed investment in our nation’s infrastructure,” Graves said. “Absent that, America will continue to struggle in the ever increasingly competitive global economy. Safely moving people and products has been the circulatory system that made American strong. Whatever plan is developed to address our current and future national needs—it will have a steep price tag.”
Freight interests are pushing for a new federal freight program paid for by a new fund financed by revenue by a variety of sources. They want this program to be “firewalled” from the HTF and funds distributed by the Department of Transportation to improve conditions on certain freight corridors.
But even as this new freight fund is being discussed, some in Washington who want to tear down the existing firewall that allows for all HTF money to be used solely for transportation. President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget is pushing to tear down the Highway Trust Fund firewall, which is opposed by highway and freight interests. This is shaping up to be a major issue in the coming months.
The firewall concept is complicated. Mainly, it means if Highway Trust Fund money is unspent, it can be used to offset other government spending. The bottom line means less money spent on highways.
“The real dramatic effect would be for payers into the fund, like truckers, is that it would be very difficult to convince us to fork over additional revenue if it’s not used for its intended purpose,” says Timothy Lynch, senior vice president of the ATA.
Already, truckers and other surface freight interests have enlisted some powerful allies. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and many others on that committee are opposed to taking down the trust fund firewall. But appropriators in House and Senate are naturally in favor of it because it gives them greater freedom to move funds about for other pet purposes.
Preliminary discussions are already suggesting Rep. Oberstar is looking for the new plan to be in the $500 billion range. That would be a substantial increase over the current SAFE-TEA-LU program which was funded at $286 billion.
Kansas Secretary of Transportation Miller, testifying to Congress on behalf of AASHTO, recently outlined a six-year, multi-modal transportation investment that includes: $375 billion for highways; $93 billion for transit; $42 billion for freight from outside the Highway Trust Fund; and $35 billion for intercity passenger rail, also from outside the Highway Trust Fund.
“Trucking interests in Washington are actively lobbying Congress to keep Highway Trust Funds for transport purposes and to summon the political courage to create a spending bill commensurate with the nation’s needs, which have been generally ignored the past decade,” added Miller.
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