With the Republican victories in the November elections bringing sweeping changes to Congress, what does that mean for the freight transportation industry? Can a new Congress rise to the challenge, embrace a bipartisan approach and make tangible progress repairing and upgrading our nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure?
You cannot decouple the growth of America’s economy from the efficiency of our transportation system. And the foundation of that system is the network of roads and highways over which trucks deliver 70 percent of goods by weight and 83 percent of goods by value to factories, businesses and consumers.
Congress has failed for 18 months now to pass a reauthorization of the federal surface transportation funding bill. Our nation’s transportation infrastructure is in worse shape as a result. We need a comprehensive solution that establishes effective, reliable long-term funding sources and prioritizes projects to reduce the worst congestion in our cities and delivers the most national and regional benefits.
Funding remains a critical stumbling block. The Highway Trust Fund is depleted. The federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, the primary source of funding for the Highway Trust Fund, has not been raised since 1993. Last year, the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission, authorized by Congress to study the state of our nation’s highway system, projected it would take a dime a gallon increase in the federal fuel tax just to maintain current highway quality!
The trucking industry is willing to pay its fair share of increased fuel and highway use taxes — as long as the funds are devoted exclusively to highway repair and expansion. The answer, if we are truly to make progress, will involve a mix of funding sources. We can’t sit back and hope to rely on the same old funding mechanisms.
Restoring the nation’s highways needs to be a top priority for legislative action. Hopefully, our new Congress and the Obama administration can find the true bipartisan leadership necessary to put our ailing transportation system on the road to recovery.