Transportation infrastructure: AAPA's Nagle calls for quick action on surface transportation authorization
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/10/2009
With the immediate prospects for long-term surface transportation funding seemingly a ways off, American Association of Port Authorities President and Chief Executive Officer Kurt Nagle called on Congress to push for authorization of a multi-year surface transportation as a key legislative priority for 2010.
In a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar, Nagle said a key component to this bill must be improving freight mobility, including port access.
"AAPA urges you to prioritize policies and programs to improve the facilitation of goods movement in our transportation system," wrote Nagle. "U.S. public port authorities provide a critical linkage in the freight network - connecting international shipping lanes with the U.S. highway system and providing intermodal connectors between water, rail and trucks. On average, each of our 50 states relies on 13 to 15 ports to handle its imports and exports, which total more than $1.3 billion worth of goods moving in and out of U.S. ports every day."
Like his counterparts in other freight transportation modes, Nagle also noted that the establishment of a national freight program that includes coordination in planning at federal, state and local levels is vital. This national plan, he wrote, must have the ability to fund both large freight needs at the federal level and smaller regionally and locally significant needs at the state level.
"This will enable the United States to maintain and improve our world-class surface transportation system and remain competitive in the global economy," according to Nagle. "The plan should also ask coastal states to address short sea shipping as a solution to highway congestion. Exempting the Harbor Maintenance Tax on certain domestic movement of cargo should also be a priority to encourage more short sea shipping to alleviate road congestion."
Along with establishing a national freight program, Nagle also proposed:
· consolidating the existing 108 surface transportation programs into 10, one of which is freight transportation as recommended by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study and AASHTO;
· the establishment of a multi-modal freight office that reports to the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. DOT;
· investments in freight rail; and
· the development of marine highways, among other efforts.
Current reauthorization status: In late October, the United States Congress signed off on a seven-week extension to continue funding foe federal surface transportations until December 18. This vote is part of a continuing resolution to continue funding for seven of 12 Fiscal 2010 spending bills which originally expired on September 30 and were extended in late September for four weeks with an October 31 expiration date.
This most recent continuing resolution represents the second extension for surface transportation funding since SAFETEA-LU-the current $286 billion, five-year spending program-Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users- expired at the end of September. And it also signals that a more long-term fix is not likely to come in the short-term, due to Congress's ongoing focus over the health care reform debate.
Earlier this year, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar drafted six-year, $500 billion bill introduced as a successor to SAFETEA-LU. Oberstar's plan-with a vision for a National Transportation Strategic Plan that is international in nature and national in scope-is at a standstill due to lack of sufficient funding mechanisms.
In an interview with LM earlier today, Nagle said that Oberstar has and continues to work to get this bill moving quickly and not have it be delayed by any significant period of time, noting that SAFETEA-LU required 12 extensions before being authorized in 2005.
"This bill has not historically been an easy piece of legislation, especially when dealing with a broad transportation system and the funding thereof," he said. "It has dramatic impacts for not only transportation infrastructure itself-but what it means to the economy. It seems pretty clear that with last week's elections, regardless of party, one of the strong public priorities is jobs and getting the economy moving again."
With this in mind, Nagle said this bill-like some aspects of the stimulus bill passed in February-has the capability to promote economic growth and job creation and brings together needs and priorities needed for short-term job growth and short-term impacts on the economy. He added it would help establish the groundwork for future economic growth, as well as help from an international competitiveness standpoint.
"Without an efficient transportation system, we are not going to be competitive internationally with about 30 percent of our economy accounted for by international trade," said Nagle. "We need to have that system be efficient to enable us to compete globally. And this bill fits a lot of the priorities that not only the Administration and Congress has in getting the economy moving, but it also matches up with the public's desire to focus on jobs and the economy."
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Spokesman Jim Berard told LM that between now and the second continuing resolution deadline of December 18, a few different things may happen. One may be moving to a long-term bill and another may be coming to an agreement on another extension on an indeterminate amount of time.
"Chairman Oberstar would like to see the long-term bill move and be on the House floor by Christmas, but we are still in a holding pattern to due health care," said Berard. "And the Ways and Means Committee on the House side has to mark up the revenue title of the [Oberstar] bill before we can even bring it to the House floor."
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