Contact: Matt Jeanneret      202-289-4434

Washington, D.C. [June 15, 1999] — The U.S. House of Representatives voted to restore truth in transportation budgeting today by approving an aviation bill that would ensure that all future federal aviation taxes are used solely to improve the safety and efficiency of the nation’s airports, the Alliance for Truth In Transportation Budgeting said.

The five-year Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21^st Century (AIR-21) approved by a House vote of 316-110 would double federal investment in the Airport Improvement Program.

The Alliance praised the bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), ranking Democrat Jim Oberstar

(D-Minn.), Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.), and Aviation Subcommittee ranking member Bill Lipinski (D-Ill.) for standing up for the integrity of the Aviation Trust Fund and needed investments for America’s aviation network.

The Alliance for Truth in Transportation Budgeting was established with a dozen members in 1995. Its mission is to push legislation to take the four federal transportation trust funds off-budget to ensure that user-fee financed federal transportation improvement programs are not subject to annual budget politics. Today, the Alliance includes more than 100 business, labor, transportation, travel, energy, construction and agriculture groups.

The Alliance has been pushing off-budget treatment for the Airport Trust Fund since 1995. It helped generate 179 co-sponsors for H.R. 111, which was a provision in AIR-21. The Alliance has conducted aggressive grassroots, direct lobbying and advocacy advertising campaigns. It will conduct similar campaigns to generate support for legislation in the Senate that contains the budgetary principles and funding levels found in AIR-21.

In 1998, Congress approved surface transportation legislation, now known as TEA-21, which contains a landmark provision guaranteeing that all Highway Trust Fund revenues are used solely for transportation improvements.