Skip to main content

Passing Short-Term Transportation Bills Is Like Patching a Flat Tire

May 20, 2015
Blog

The referenced media source is missing and needs to be re-embedded.

By July, when the transportation funding bill the House passed yesterday expires, Congress shall have spent a full year since the last short-term transportation patch twiddling its thumbs, not even trying to make progress toward the long-term authorization bill the nation desperately needs. We have developed a dangerous habit—33 times since the last long-term bill—of passing short-term patches that create no urgency to get a long-term bill finally done. Frustration in states has accumulated as fast as the untenable backlog of projects, while Congress has sat on its hands allowing another construction season to be sacrificed.

This is a Republican-manufactured crisis that is taking a big slice out of our economy and killing transportation and infrastructure job creation. Without yesterday's two-month patch, jobs were threatened of federal employees in my district and thousands of others throughout the country who work in federal transportation agencies. Congress acted before May 31 and avoided forcing highway and transit programs to shut down, but additional costs to the economy continue to pile up. Many economic development projects in the country cannot be started until roads, bridges, and transit to accommodate them are completed.

In response, the states have had to slow down their requests for reimbursements from the Highway Trust Fund because the replenished fund, together with the short-term patches, makes it impossible for states themselves to even start projects of any size.

Today, along with other Democrats on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I introduced the President's six-year transportation bill, the GROW AMERICA Act. We are putting a good bill on the table to get negotiations started. We can debate the specifics, but we need a long-term bill to move America forward.