Fed Transportation Unlikely to Pass Soon

Every six years, Congress allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for transportation and infrastructure projects that shape our communities for generations. (Case in point: the dissection of Hartford and the riverfront by I-84 and I-91.)

Our current $286 billion national transportation program expires in 2009.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the next transportation authorization bill would distribute $450 billion in funds to states over six years to upgrade roads, bridges and transit systems, including $70 billion each year for highway and mass transit systems. Nearly a third (28%) of our greenhouse gas emissions comes from the transportation sector.

But the US House of Representatives is unlikely to agree this summer about how to pay for that major transportation investment, disappointing state governments, transit agencies, construction companies, and advocates like CTLCV.

As Roll Call reported on July 27:

"If House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has his way, the House this week will approve a $3 billion infusion for the ailing Highway Trust Fund before leaving town Friday. Doing so would head off a projected shortfall in the account that in mid-August would halt federal payments for highway projects — funds desperately needed by cash-starved states. Moreover, the gambit buys time for Oberstar to press his six-year transportation overhaul, also known as the highway bill, by throwing off a plan advancing in the Senate that would extend the current transportation law for 18 months beyond its Sept. 30 expiration."

CTLCV has signed on as a partner with Transportation for America to seize the opportunity to overhaul our transportation systems in a way that simultaneously reduces greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign oil. Check out Transportation for America's website for more information, and stay tuned.