COMMENTARY: No more Band-Aids for America’s highways

With Speaker Boehner abandoning the committee process – refusing to allow the Transportation Committee to write a long-term bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Highway Trust Fund – Democrats on the Transportation Committee have joined me in support of the Administration’s GROW AMERICA plan to invest $478 billion over six years to rebuild our nation’s critical infrastructure – without adding to the federal deficit.

Our move came during another week of government by manufactured crisis in Washington. With Speaker Boehner playing to Tea-Party Republicans who want the federal government to stop funding highways all together, Congress had no choice but to approve another short-term extension to keep the Highway Trust Fund from expiring – a national disgrace that would have halted 6,000 critical highway projects in their tracks nationwide, and put 660,000 jobs in jeopardy at the height of the summer construction season. Here in Minnesota, federal funding accounts for 64 percent of our highway capitol program. And this summer, 600 major highway projects will directly support 9,487 construction jobs.

With 65 percent of the nation’s roads in poor condition and one in four bridges in need of significant repair – severely curtailing our ability to create jobs and grow the economy – the need for new sources of revenue is clear. Our GROW AMERICA legislation accomplishes that without adding to the deficit – by taxing some $2 trillion in untaxed foreign earnings that U.S. companies have accumulated overseas. Our bill includes substantial increases in support over the next six years for highways, freight, mass transit, railroads and ports. Moreover, the measure would boost vehicle and tire safety programs, and require manufacturers to act immediately to alleviate harm and inform consumers where there is an imminent risk of injury of death.

The Highway Trust Fund extension will last only two months. During that time, if the Speaker will allow, Republicans and Democrats will be doing everything in our power to write a long-term bill to fund the Trust Fund. Meanwhile, the GROW AMERICA ACT provides a solid foundation for an even longer-term solution to America’s rapidly worsening infrastructure crisis.

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