Tag: Highway Trust Fund: Page 34

Roadbuilding

Transportation Infrastructure Funding: Efficiency is necessary but not sufficient

It’s a case of on the one hand/on the other hand. New Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx is saying that his department is “working to improve the efficiency and performance of our existing transportation system” and is “doing so in an era when we must work harder than ever to stretch our transportation dollar.” He […]

July 26, 2013

Roadbuilding

Senate passes bridge-prioritizing amendment to DOT, HUD spending bill

The Senate on Wednesday passed an amendment to its proposed $54 billion transportation and housing spending bill, prioritizing bridge projects, according to a report from The Hill. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) authored the amendment, which he said would prioritize bridges deemed “structurally obsolete” or “deficient,” allowing those bridges to be fixed before others. “We all […]

July 25, 2013

Roadbuilding

House subcommittee to discuss Highway Trust Fund this week

The House Highways and Transit Subcommittee will hold a hearing Tuesday on the current financial status of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and its impact on federal surface transportation programs. The hearing, titled “How the Financial Status of the Highway Trust Fund Impacts Surface Transportation Programs,” will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time at the Rayburn […]

July 22, 2013

Roadbuilding

Keep America Moving campaign focuses on road, infrastructure funding

The American Highway Users Alliance launched its Keep America Moving (KAM) grassroots campaign last week. The campaign is an effort to organize local leaders in the U.S. to influence their elected officials to push for federal investment in America’s highways and bridges. KAM will offer key facts, issue alerts and calls-to-action that bring attention to […]

July 1, 2013

Roadbuilding

Private money: A funding wildcard in 2014

It’s hard to see a time in the foreseeable future where we will have a solid supply of funding from any single source to fill the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). That’s an asterisked statement of course because an increased gas tax could do it. But that won’t happen in the foreseeable future. And neither will […]

June 13, 2013

Roadbuilding

The pros and cons of transportation funding options

Following transportation funding discussions at this week’s Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) Fly-In in Washington, D.C., Politico has reported the pros and cons of the four most popular money-raising options. Lawmakers at the Fly-In discussed four main options for funding infrastructure projects: implement a higher gas tax, enforce a vehicle-miles-traveled fee, expand oil and gas drilling […]

June 6, 2013

Business

LaHood expects big Obama announcement on transportation, comments on I-5 bridge collapse

During a recent talk before the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) in Washington, D.C., outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told those in attendance to expect a big announcement from President Barack Obama later this year concerning transportation infrastructure. “Once we get past immigration, guns, the sequester, I think the President is going to be big and bold […]

June 6, 2013

Roadbuilding

Inhofe: Obama’s $500 billion to $600 billion reauthorization bill “not going to happen”

Oklahoma conservative Republican Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who has “been through,” as a he puts it, eight reauthorization bills, said after hearing outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood say President Obama’s goal was $500 billion to $600 billion long-term reauthorization bill: “It’s not going to happen.” But, he said, a long term, well-funded bill is […]

June 5, 2013

Roadbuilding

Let’s start ramping up reauthorization pressure

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has, helpfully, stated the obvious. The CBO is essentially confirming for us that when reauthorization rolls about next September, MAP-21’s replacement, facing a nearly bankrupt Highway Trust Fund, will either have to dive into the General Fund (and fight with everyone else in Washington who has to dive into the […]

May 2, 2013

Roadbuilding

The fuel tax heist: Robbing Peter Highway to pay Paul Non-Highway

Here comes another one. A state politician – this time it’s Oregon Democratic Representative Jules Bailey – who sees money raised by fuel taxes as a sort of cookie jar he can raid to buy stuff he likes. But the jar the money goes into is a Highway Trust Fund, and the money in that […]

April 4, 2013

Roadbuilding

Waiting for DiMaggio

Is the automobile over? Scary thought if fuel taxes continue to be the single biggest contributor to our transportation infrastructure funding structure. And they’re not my words; it’s a headline from Motor Trend magazine last fall. I’m resurrecting this oldie here as part of an effort to look ahead to the coming reauthorization debate/fracas. Because […]

April 3, 2013

Roadbuilding

Legislators look to expanded drilling for transportation funding

Since a gas tax seems to be an unlikely source of transportation funding, some legislators are looking to oil. In fact, Speaker John Boehner has called revenues for infrastructure improvements via oil and gas drilling expansions a “natural link,” according to Politico. However, some lobbyists are concerned that expanded drilling won’t bring in enough money […]

March 27, 2013