After President Visits Key Bridge to Warn of Highway Trust Fund Shortfall, Norton Urges Immediate Closure of Corporate Tax Loopholes to Replenish Funds

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Ranking Member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, said today that the President's visit to Key Bridge this afternoon and the Department of Transportation's (DOT) warning that the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) will run out by the end of August leaves Congress less than a month to find a solution.

"Due to Congress' inaction, we now face an infrastructure emergency," Norton said. "If Congress does not act by the end of the month, it will force the Department of Transportation to ration reimbursements to the states, and will be directly responsible for the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs, for the slowdown of current projects, and for the cancellation of new infrastructure work nationwide. The greatest danger, of course, is to the economy itself. Instead of investing in our infrastructure and in jobs, House Republicans have held steadfast to maintain corporate loopholes that ship jobs and investments overseas. Only real money, no gimmicks, can fix this."

Norton is an original cosponsor of H.R. 4985, the Stop Corporate Expatriation and Invest in America's Infrastructure Act, which closes corporate tax loopholes to help increase revenue for the HTF.

Last month, Norton joined highway users, construction professionals, material and equipment suppliers, and labor representatives at a rally to call for congressional action before the HTF becomes insolvent. HTF insolvency could mean the delay of more than 100,000 roadway projects and 5,600 transit projects, and could cost the economy as many as 700,000 construction jobs in the next year.

If Congress does not allocate more funds to the HTF, the DOT will implement a cash management plan at the beginning of August to manage the flow of federal dollars to states, and reimbursements for infrastructure work will be limited to the available cash remaining in the HTF.

In May of this year, Norton sent a memo to her colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee indicating the widespread implications of an underfunded HTF. In the memo dated May 9, 2014, she wrote the "HTF will not be able to reimburse states for work already completed as early as mid-July" and the "looming crisis will require Congress to provide additional resources to patch the HTF to ensure limited disruption to the surface transportation construction market for the remainder of fiscal year 2014."

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it will cost $8.1 billion to keep the HTF solvent through the end of the calendar year.