U.S. Chamber of Commerce

In 2009, U.S. policymakers will have to come to terms with this cold, hard truth: The level of transportation infrastructure funding and how those funds are spent are insufficient for maintaining —much less modernizing and expanding — a safe, reliable and efficient transportation system. This has escalated into a silent crisis with severe economic, safety and environmental consequences. Congress must include in any economic stimulus package funding for ready-to-go infrastructure projects. Such investment would give a shot in the arm to our sagging economy and would create millions of new jobs, while addressing the backlog of maintenance and construction. Congress also must turn its attention to three separate authorization bills: Federal Aviation Administration and Airport and Airways Trust Fund authorization to expand capacity on the ground and modernize the air traffic control system; a multiyear highway and transit reauthorization bill that increases investment by the federal government and the private sector, scales back earmarks, and targets investment to meet national needs; and reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act to support critical dredging, navigation, lock, dam and levee projects. Washington lawmakers also must enact an infrastructure investment tax credit for the rail industry. All the money in the world won’t fix our infrastructure challenges unless we first define the national interest and target funds to meet congestion, safety and environmental objectives. We need to replace widespread earmarking with a vision of a comprehensive multimodal and intermodal transportation infrastructure system. This means making tough spending decisions based on actual need instead of politics. And unless we deal with regulatory and permitting barriers, appropriated dollars won’t actually be invested. We must streamline complex and overlapping regulations that have stretched project delivery times to 13 years on average. 2009 must be the year that the U.S. makes tangible progress in building a world-class, efficient and safe transportation system.