Transportation Secretary Anthony FoxxTransportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Thursday urged union workers to tell Congress that “we need to move forward” and increase highway spending, USA Today reports.
Foxx’s comments came during a labor rally in front of AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. The rally was part of Infrastructure Week 2014.
During the rally, Foxx urged attendees to tell Congress to increase spending on transportation infrastructure.
“We tell Congress to be ambitious because our country is ambitious — because our workers are ambitious,” Foxx said in the report. “We don’t want to go back. We need to move forward.”
The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on Thursday approved a six-year highway bill, the MAP-21 Reauthorization Act. The current bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), expires September 30.
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Earlier in the week, Foxx criticized the Senate EPW’s bill for a lack of spending, noting that “America has been waiting on a bigger solution.” The Obama administration is pushing for a four-year, $302 billion proposal, the GROW AMERICA Act.
“There’s a not-so-subtle message in the title of the bill: Grow America,” Foxx said in the USA Today report. “It means to think through the front windshield and not through the rear-view mirror about where this country needs to go.”
