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Norton on House Floor Says Outdated Gas User Fee is Stifling Economic Development in D.C. and Nationwide

July 15, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, today took to the House floor to call on Congress to pass a long-term, six-year surface transportation bill and update the gas user fee for the first time in 22 years. In her remarks, Norton called the roll of 18 states and the District of Columbia that have raised their state gas tax, and eight more states that are considering it. Meanwhile, Norton said, Congress has failed to pay its part, which averages 50 percent of the cost of transportation infrastructure. She used the iconic Arlington Memorial Bridge, gateway to the National Mall and Arlington Cemetery, as an example of the nation's crumbling infrastructure. Memorial Bridge currently has two lanes closed and a ban on tour and Metro buses used by thousands of workers to get to work over the bridge. Norton also cited H Street Bridge, which must be rebuilt, as an example of a project standing in the way of billions of dollars of other non-transportation development projects.

In her remarks, Norton said, "Almost half of the states have been driven to rely on state taxpayers alone, states that have nothing in common on policy except their desire to keep their transportation and infrastructure, the keys to a growth economy, from completely disintegrating."