Murray Statement on Bush Administration's Admission that Highway Trust Fund is in Crisis

For Immediate Release: Friday, September 5, 2008


(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Transportation admitted that the primary means of funding highway construction and repair – the Highway Trust Fund – has gone broke, and that it reached this point far sooner than Administration officials expected.

Senator Murray, who chairs the Transportation and Housing Appropriations Subcommittee, has been sounding the alarm about the Highway Trust Fund for more than two years. This year, she helped draw up a legislative solution, which would restore to the trust fund more than $8 billion that was taken out of it at the end of 1998. The House has passed a similar measure by a 10 to 1 margin, but Republicans in the Senate have blocked the solution repeatedly.

Today, after opposing it for months, the Bush Administration finally abandoned its veto threat and endorsed the legislative fix, asking Congress to get it to the President’s desk by next week.

“The Highway Trust Fund is now bankrupt. It’s too bad that it has taken an emergency to force the Administration to pull its head out of the sand and appreciate how serious this problem is.

“If we don’t pass a solution fast, we’ll be forced to cancel critical highway construction and repair projects that ensure our roads and bridges are safe and secure.

“This crisis could lead to millions of construction layoffs across this country at a time when the unemployment rate is already the highest it has been in nearly five years.

“We have brought legislation to the Senate floor multiple times to help resolve this crisis, yet Republicans have repeatedly blocked our efforts. Now that the Administration is on board, it is critical that my Republican colleagues stop denying that we face a crisis in this country and help us pass a solution.”

WCSI Local News
U.S. Highway Trust Fund Running Out of Money
INDOTThe U.S. Transportation Secretary says the federal highway trust fund will run out of money this month. Mary Peters blames the shortage of funds on the high price of gasoline, which has led to less driving by Americans. The decrease in driving means motorists use less fuel and pay less in federal gasoline tax.

Peters said the U.S. Department of Transportation will have to delay payments to state road and bridge projects that the federal government is helping finance. It's something the Indiana Department of Transportation's Andy Dietrick says they've been planning for.

"These are projections that we've taken into account for the fiscal '09, '10, and '11 budgets that we've put together," said Dietrick. "While it may not be a crisis it is definitely a cause for concern."

Dietrick says 55 Major Moves projects are still on pace to move forward. He says Indiana is a better position than other states who rely solely on state and federal gas tax money to pay for road projects.

"We have the toll road lease proceeds that fund the majority of our new construction," said Dietrick.

Peters wants Congress to pass legislation that includes $8 billion to help cover the federal shortfall.
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 9:07:16 AM

They provide the capital and heavy equipment (since they manufacture it now) and they hire American coolies to work on their roads.

House votes $8B relief for highway trust fund
By JIM ABRAMS – 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Thursday sent President Bush an $8 billion rescue package for the federal highway trust fund. The infusion comes as the trust fund, which relies on declining revenues from the federal gas tax, verges on going broke, threatening road and bridge projects in every state.

The House passed the measure on a 376-29 vote Thursday, a day after the Senate overcame objections from conservative senators and passed it on a voice vote. The legislation transfers $8 billion from the Treasury's general fund to the highway fund, ensuring that ongoing construction projects won't be interrupted.

The White House had previously threatened to veto the measure, calling it "both a gimmick and a dangerous precedent that shifts costs form users to taxpayers at large."

But the administration shifted positions after Transportation Secretary Mary Peters last week revealed that the trust fund would run out of money this month, which would delay payments to states for infrastructure projects and threaten the jobs of hundreds of thousands of construction workers.

"We must act," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. "The trust fund is broke, out of money. Our state and local governments, drivers, construction workers and many others suffer when highway projects are delayed." He and others pointed out that in 1998 the government moved $8 billion from the trust fund, then enjoying a large surplus, to the general fund for deficit reduction, and that this measure returned borrowed money.

It has long been anticipated that the 52-year-old trust fund would move into the red next year, a result of the reluctance of Congress to raise the gas tax, unchanged since 1993 despite inflation and soaring construction costs. The federal fuel tax is 18.4 cents a gallon, or 24.3 cents for diesel.

But the fund, which had a $10 billion surplus just three years ago, has had a rapid change in fiscal fortune as drivers, responding to higher gas prices, have curtailed their driving and switched to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Peters on Wednesday commended the Senate for its swift action to address the immediate crisis but added in a statement that "Congress must eliminate the billions in wasted spending, thousands of unneeded earmarks and hundreds of conflicting and contradictory special interest programs in order to make sure states don't face this situation again."

The few opponents of the bill blamed the current crisis on the 6,300 earmarks — lawmakers' pet projects — worth some $24 billion, included in the $286 billion highway bill Congress passed in 2005. That bill expires next year.

"Part of the reason we are having to steal money from the general fund," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is "we just went hog wild in 2005. We've got to stop this earmarking process."

Democrats in turn thanked the White House and Republicans for letting the stalled bill move forward. "I'm glad the Republicans came to their senses — you can't play politics with 300,000 jobs when we're in a recession," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calf., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
more:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_fI-3w...JzrqsAD934O4581

It isn't that Democrats are unwilling to work it out to get things done, it's that Republicans are unwilling to work AT ALL.