Editorial: Finish the Road Work
img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>We’re now at eight federal highway program extensions and still counting. Just when we had reason to hope that Congress, at last, would close ranks behind a compromise bill to replace the old road-funding blueprint, lawmakers fell back into the same old rut. A flurry of reports as June drew to a close indicated that the House and Senate had struck an agreement on the size and scope of Washington’s surface transportation policy for the next half-decade. Cause for jubilation was premature, however. Both sides had agreed only to renew the status quo so they could go on wrangling over details.
This is a critical problem for truck transportation, and for the nation’s economic well-being. The only thing we have at the halfway point in 2005 is the same old same old: We’re stuck at 2003’s funding level.
How can we have a highway program for the future if we’re locked in the past?
As American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves noted in his recent “State of the Industry” address to the news media, further delay in authorizing a multiyear money and policy bill has far-reaching consequences. Because Congress has failed to pass new legislation, Graves said, roads are not being improved, traffic congestion is not being relieved, safety is not being enhanced and the overall quality of American life is suffering.
The cost of road construction and maintenance, meanwhile, is going up with the cost of driving.
As noted in the June 27 Transport Topics, the rising price of asphalt, derived from ever-more-expensive crude oil, had caused at least five states to postpone or cancel resurfacing projects. That news should send an alarm signal to Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers, as we went to press, continued dithering over a funding difference of less than 2% between the Senate proposal and what the Bush administration has said it would accept. There is a lot of political posturing going on here.
Federal highway legislation has always been a political product in the end, and multiyear programs have always had a difficult birth. But having to survive on eight extensions of an expired program is simply going too far.
We agree with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who said last week that the White House is tired of waiting, the Federal Highway Administration is tired of waiting and the American people are tired of waiting. It’s way past time for Congress to finish its road work.
This article appeared in the July 4 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
