Restructure Federal Highway Program…
Get America Moving Again, ARTBA
Tells Finance Commission

Washington, D.C. [March 19, 2007]—"The secure and efficient movement of freight and people is the lifeblood of the American economy and should be the driving force behind development of a new federal transportation vision and strategic plan," American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) First Vice Chairman Charlie Potts told the National Surface Transportation and Policy Revenue Study Commission at a March 19 hearing on Capitol Hill.

To meet that need, Potts, CEO of Indianapolis-based Heritage Construction and Materials, shared with the commission ARTBA’s recommendation for a new, bifurcated federal-aid highway program structure that would feature:

• A "Critical Commerce Corridors" (3C) program, financed with new, freight-related, dedicated revenue streams that would improve U.S. freight movement and emergency response capabilities, reconstruct and upgrade the current Interstate System, and provide the new capacity and intermodal connections necessary for competitiveness; and
  
• Augmented investment in the rest of the existing federal-aid "core" highway and transit programs to upgrade and protect the nation’s past investments in transportation infrastructure.

"We believe a clear separation between the ‘Critical Commerce Corridors’ program and the core highway and transit programs is necessary to ensure that strategic new capacity gets added to the national system and those being asked to financially support the 3C program see their investment being put into the infrastructure they directly benefit from," Potts said.

Potts rejected recent calls by anti-highway groups to reduce or eliminate the federal government’s role in transportation infrastructure-related activities. "It is puzzling why the federal role is even being debated," he said. "Transportation is intertwined with, fosters, or impacts, virtually every major area of national interest, be it security, defense, economic growth, air and water quality, and even immigration.

"China, India and the European Union are not questioning whether there needs to be a strong federal role in transportation," Potts told the commission. "They are making huge, strategic transportation investments designed to help them challenge—and beat— America in the global marketplace."

In addition to the 3C program, in the immediate term, the federal government should be boosting investment in transportation to shore up an aging infrastructure, the ARTBA first vice chairman noted.

An ARTBA analysis of the recently-released U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) 2006 "Conditions and Performance" (C&P) report finds the average annual gap over the next highway/transit bill reauthorization cycle between projected Highway Trust Fund revenues and the federal government’s share of highway infrastructure needs is $19 billion.

Given the financial shortfall, an increase in the federal motor fuels excise is the only viable approach to filling this void in the short-term, Potts said. A fuels tax increase of 8.5 cents per gallon in FY 2010 and growing to 10 cents per gallon in FY 2015 is necessary to support the outlays necessary to meet the federal government’s share of the C&P report’s documented needs.

"The states individually cannot meet these national transportation challenges. Nor should it be expected that the private sector is going to make, or facilitate, all of the enormous investments in new infrastructure capacity that are necessary for the U.S. to remain competitive in the future," Potts said. "It will only happen with strong federal direction and leadership."

###

Editor’s Note: The complete text of ARTBA’s testimony can be found at www.artba.org.