By Contact: Jim Berard, 202-226-5064, jim.berard@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON—Democratic leaders of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure joined a prominent Republican Senator in a Capitol news conference today to voice support for a new authorization of surface transportation programs and opposition to an extension of current authority.
T&I Chairman James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Chairman Peter A. DeFazio (Ore.), and Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) spoke against a proposed 18-month extension plan and pledged to move ahead with a six-year authorization bill. The current authorization, contained in the 2005 act known popularly by the acronym SAFETEA-LU (or simply SAFETEA), is due to expire September 30.
The bipartisan trio of lawmakers said Congress should move the bill now being developed in the House.
“The Interstate highway system gave America its greatest spurt of economic growth in the history of this country and we need to sustain that growth by sustaining the investment in surface transportation. That is what this legislation will do,” said Oberstar. “An eighteen-month extension will put us into the next Presidential election cycle. It will take four years to finish, not a year and a half. I know how Congress works. Inertia becomes the enemy of progress. We are ready to move and we should move now.”
“An eighteen-month delay of the transportation authorization is short-sighted, unacceptable, and will harm our economic recovery,” added DeFazio. ‘Our six-year authorization bill will create or sustain double the amount of jobs as an extension. We cannot afford to walk away from one million jobs at a time when we are experiencing a struggling economy and high unemployment.”
The lawmakers said a six-year bill is needed to give states and other recipients time to plan their long-term construction projects. Short-term extensions cause uncertainty and disrupt the planning process, resulting in fewer projects, fewer jobs, and less economic growth.
The Highways and Transit Subcommittee marked up a Committee print of a new authorization bill in late June, and the full Committee is preparing the bill for mark-up, pending action by the Committee on Ways and Means on the revenue title. In the meantime, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is scheduled to mark up a bill providing for an 18-month extension later this week.
Video of the news conference can be seen here
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