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Background
Please
call your congressional delegation today and ask them to support
full funding of SAFETEA-LU. [Note: if your organization does work
outside of Maine, please call that states congressional
delegation].
A
substantial portion of the transportation construction market is at
risk. In SAFETEA-LU, the federal highway and transit bill
passed in 2005, Congress and the president authorized federal
investment levels of $39.1 billion for highways and $9.0 billion
for transit in Fiscal Year 2007. A year ago, President
Bush largely adhered to these investment requirements in his
proposed FY2007 federal budget. These guarantees represent
increases of $3.4 billion for highways and $474 million for
transit over FY 2006.
However,
for these increased investment levels to take effect, Congress must
also pass a transportation appropriations bill that includes
them. Unfortunately, the last Congress failed to do so by the
end of 2006, instead passing a continuing resolution that keeps
federal spending at the lower Fiscal Year 2006 levels until
February.
This month,
the new Congress, with Democrats now controlling both houses, has to
start the process over again. There are many reports that
leaders of both houses are planning a catch-all federal spending
bill for FY2007 that would keep federal highway and transit
investment at the same level as last year, costing those
programs the $4 billion in increases authorized by
SAFETEA-LU.
Right now, congressional leaders are deciding whether or
not to pass a FY2007 spending bill that includes these authorized
increases in the federal highway and transit programs. Please
ask co-workers, colleagues and others to call their U.S. senators
and representatives offices right away and ask them to support full
funding of SAFETEA-LU.
What to Do
- Call the toll-free ARTBA Action
Hotline at 1-888-448-2782. Follow the instructions to be
connected to the Capitol Hill office of your U.S. representative
or senator.
- Ask for your member of Congress or
their staff person who handles transportation.
- Identify yourself as a voting
constituent and ask them to support the full funding of SAFETEA-LU
in the FY2007 appropriations bill ($39.1 billion for highways and
$9.0 billion for transit).
- Tell them that flat funding
would cost Maine $20.7 million in federal highway dollars this
year, as well as 987 new jobs. Can Maine afford to take
a cut in federal funding when the states capital investment
program is at its weakest in many years?
- Make sure they know how flat funding
would negatively affect your business, especially with ongoing
increases in construction materials costs.
More Points to
Make
- Federal highway investment is funded
exclusively - and federal transit investment is funded primarily -
by the federal gas and diesel excise taxes. The user fees at
issue have already been collected and are in the federal Highway
Trust Fund ready to be invested in transportation improvement
projects. A user fee means that what a user pays into the
system is equally invested back into it.
- The investment levels of $39.1 billion
for highways and $9.0 billion for transit were included in
SAFETEA-LU and, almost dollar for dollar, proposed by the Bush
Administration, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the
previous Congress, and also passed by the previous Senate
Appropriations Committee.
- Cuts to the federal highway and
transit programs do not help reduce the federal budget
deficit. Federal gas and diesel tax revenue cannot be used
for anything else. Congress overwhelmingly voted for these
firewalls in TEA-21 (1998) and SAFETEA-LU (2005).
- The real value of highway and transit
investment has decreased as a result of a 30 percent increase in
construction costs over the last three years. As these costs
rise, flattening federal highway and transit investment this year
would be tantamount to cutting the program. Meanwhile,
traffic congestion, truck traffic and vehicle miles traveled
continue to increase year after year.
- Cutting authorized highway and transit
investment could severely delay project delivery times, because
state departments of transportation have planned transportation
improvements based on those authorized funding levels. The
purpose of enacting a six-year highway and transit authorization
law is to allow state DOTs to budget and plan for needed projects
years in advance.
- Leaving $4 billion in transportation
improvements on the table will cost 185,000 new American jobs.
Call Sen. Snowe, Sen. Collins and Reps.
Michaud and Allen today!
Use the toll-free
ARTBA Action Hotline at
1-888-448-2782 ,
and follow the
simple instructions to be connected to Capitol
Hill. |
